Nick Cottone attended St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia as an undergraduate majoring in Biology with a minor in English.  He continued at St. Joseph’s completing a Master’s in Science degree in 2000 and began teaching adjudicated students in the backcountry of Colorado and Utah at Alternative Youth Adventures.  He returned to Philadelphia to work at the Center for Autistic Children for a year as a therapist in the classroom.  In 2002, he began teaching in a formal classroom at St. Anne’s Middle School in Middletown, DE and after three years began teaching 9^th Grade Physical Science at William Penn High School in New Castle, DE.  In that time, he completed a second Master’s degree in Teaching at Wesley College and an Education Leadership Certification from the University of Delaware.

Nick Cottone moved to Loudoun in 2009 and worked at Stone Hill Middle School as a Physical Science teacher before coming to Mercer in 2010 as 7^th grade dean.  He is currently the 8th grade dean at Mercer and his door is always open.