Lawrenceville Celebrates Faculty Value: Friendship

Lawrenceville faculty members have honored colleagues who embody the values that define the School community — commitment, courage, enthusiasm, friendship, honesty, initiative, kindness, leadership, loyalty, perseverance, responsibility, and thoughtfulness. These values guide daily work in the classroom, Houses, and programs across campus, shaping a culture built on shared purpose.

Math Department Chair Miguel Bayona was honored this past spring with the Lawrenceville’s friendship award, a recognition for faculty who help others feel relaxed, supported, and able to be themselves. For Bayona, who has spent three decades teaching, coaching, mentoring, and living alongside students and colleagues, the recognition came as a genuine surprise.

Bayona grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, earning his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from Universidad Pedagogica Nacional. A Fulbright scholarship brought him to the United States, where he completed a master’s degree in physics at Indiana University in Bloomington and later on another master’s degree in physics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Teaching had always been his goal. After graduate school, Bayona reached out to Lawrenceville hoping to teach physics. The science department had no openings at the time, but one conversation led to another, and in 1995, he joined the mathematics department instead. He also stepped into athletics, first as assistant coach and later as head coach of the boys’ junior varsity soccer team, activity he did for the next twenty years.

Residential life has also been an essential part of his Lawrenceville experience. Bayona and his family have lived in a couple of Houses over the years, Stephens, and Griswold, where he served as Head of “the mighty Gris” for six years. Those overlapping roles — teacher, mentor, coach, neighbor — have shaped his understanding of how to support students. He is friendly with them, he said, but the boundaries remain clear. “I try to be friendly, but I’m not their friend,” he explained. “I’m still Mr. Bayona. I will make corrections when they need to be made. That balance isn’t difficult to maintain, and I think kids understand that quickly.”

In the classroom, Bayona works to create student-driven conversations where learners collaborate, question, and work through ideas together. He wants them to explore freely but he is ready to step in when clarification is needed. “As much as I want the class to be theirs, sometimes it’s critical to explain a concept in a particular way,” he said. “I enjoy the material just as much as they do.” He often lets students pursue a line of thinking until they reach a roadblock, then guides them gently back on course. His love of mathematics is closely connected to his training in physics. “Mathematics is beautiful,” he said. “It’s the language of science… the symbols, the concepts, the equations. Without the language, it’s impossible to communicate.”

Now in his third year as department chair, Bayona views aspects of the friendship award as embedded in leadership itself: listening steadily, staying grounded, and building trust over time. He works to keep relationships with colleagues rooted in respect and openness. One of his priorities is ensuring that new teachers feel comfortable asking questions — something he remembers he needed to do when he first arrived on campus 31 years ago. “It is not unusual even for seasoned teachers to get trapped in some mathematical problem”, he said with a smile. “It is nice when teachers feel comfortable reaching out to other people in the department about their take on some math question. Teachers here are always willing to help without judgment.”

Outside the classroom, Bayona is also known for his love of magic — not for the chance to fool someone, but for the sense of wonder it creates. “I want to generate that magical feeling that something amazing just happened,” he said, “not that you are being fooled.” It’s just another way he helps his students feel comfortable, supported, and delighted — the very qualities celebrated in the friendship award.

For more information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H'17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.