Diku Rogers ’12 Returns to Peddie

Diku+Rogers+speaks+at+MLK+breakfast+at+Middlebury+College.+Photo+courtesy+middlebury.edu

Diku Rogers speaks at MLK breakfast at Middlebury College. Photo courtesy middlebury.edu

Anjali Singh ‘19

This year, Peddie has welcomed a number of new English teachers into the community, after the retirement and departure of several celebrated faculty last year. One of them is Diku Rogers, a member of Peddie’s Class of 2012. Rogers teaches sophomore Literature and Composition and a senior seminar course. In addition to being a new English teacher and a recent alum, Rogers also serves as a member of the dorm staff in Masters dormitory.

Rogers graduated from Middlebury College in 2016, majoring in English and concentrating on Creative Writing and American Literature. While there, she won several awards, such as the 2016 Middlebury Outstanding Campus Leader Award, the 2016 Extraordinary Initiative Award for her role in a production of Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ’67, and the Donald Everett Axinn Prize for Distinguished Writing. After college, she spent a year as the primary supervisor of Middlebury’s Commons residential staff. After a busy five years away from campus, Rogers has decided to come back and immerse herself in Peddie community, just as before.

Rogers, although considered “new,” is a familiar face around Peddie. While attending Peddie as a student, she served many roles in the community; she was a leader of Dynasty, a writer for the Daily Dose, a member of the Saturday Night Activities (SNA) committee, a board member of the Multicultural Alliance Club, and a prefect during her junior and senior year in Masters. In her new role as a teacher, she has continued her participation in the community as a faculty advisor for Polymag.

When Rogers found out that she would be living in Masters dormitory, she was hopeful that it would ease the nostalgia. “I was very excited to find out that I would be living here,” she said, this being her fifth year in Masters. “Masters feels like home. When you’re working with first year students, you become more appreciative overall.”

On how it felt to come back as a teacher instead of a student, she said, “Change is bound to happen, like the dynamic of my co-workers. Of course it was weird, at first, to be on the other side.” However, she looks forward to embracing the strangeness of it and learning from the faculty and her students along the way as a member of the Peddie community once again.