Tully: 4 great IPS teachers honored for life-altering work
The nominations came in by the hundreds — inspiring tales of amazing teachers doing amazing things and, along the way, making differences in the lives of their students that will be felt for decades.
Nominations came from fellow educators, parents and community residents. But most of all they came from the sources that matter most: students.
In essays filled with appreciation and love, students of Indianapolis Public Schools past and present wrote about teachers who had connected deeply with them, who gave them more time and effort than their job contracts could ever require, and who became central figures in their lives.
"She believes in me like nobody has before," a former student, Deona Bonds, wrote about Broad Ripple High School teacher Debra Wolinsky. "She never gave up on me."
That never-give-up sentiment was a common theme of the nominations sent in for the inaugural Hubbard Life-Changing Teacher Awards, which were given to four IPS teachers Wednesday evening.
In all, 230 teachers were nominated. Ten finalists were selected by a committee overseen by the United Way of Central Indiana and four winners were given $25,000 each — a thank-you for their work and a way to send a broader message about the importance and value of great teachers. (Runners-up each received $1,000.)
The winners — Arsenal Tech's Cynthia Hartshorn, Shortridge's Tina Ahlgren and Harshman's Rhonda Pierre, in addition to Wolinsky — are a reminder of why so many of us are so inspired by great teachers. The broader collection of nominations are a reminder that for every winner of the Hubbard Award, there are countless other teachers both in and out of IPS who are positively impacting their students in big and important ways.
"I don't think people realize how many unsung heroes there are in our schools," said Mary Gardner, the manager of education programs at United Way. "There are so many teachers who give so much extra, who reach into their own pockets and give their free time to their students without even really thinking about it. They just see it as part of the job."
• Tina Ahlgren, a math teacher at Shortridge Magnet High School, won for the work she has done to dramatically improve both math scores at her school and the personal lives of students.
Her nomination packet includes the story of a student who called her one night in 2011, frightened as she prepared to give birth at Wishard Hospital with no family support around her. Ahlgren raced to the hospital and stayed with the young woman as she gave birth.
Then she continued to help in the years that followed, becoming a godmother to the student's daughter and a driving force in helping the young mother push toward graduation. Ahlgren's goal is to help the young woman "break the cycle of generational poverty that has gripped her family."
Another student wrote of the time he got in trouble with the law but was pushed to succeed by Ahlgren, who made sure he did not fall behind while in juvenile jail. The father of another student wrote of how Ahlgren responded after the young man was shot. Ahlgren visited the student repeatedly as he recovered, bringing him homework and encouraging him to make better decisions.
"She took a boy who was not interested in his studies and helped transform him into a student who was eager to complete high school and attend college, which he did," the father wrote, adding that "very few people affected (my son) the way Tina did or tried to do as much for him."
• Cynthia Hartshorn has 41 years of teaching experience and has long been the choir and drama director at Arsenal Tech High School. Her positive legacy is undeniable; more than a dozen current and former students nominated Hartshorn for the award, praising her refusal to accept excuses for failure and her belief that every student can succeed.
One student wrote of the work she did to make sure students whose families could not contribute money to a trip to Disney World were able to go. Another wrote of being in Hartshorn's class two decades ago and, when dreaming of auditioning for a national touring group, being asked "What's stopping you?" Still another, Steven Taylor, recalled Hartshorn pulling him into her choir class and then pushing him to improve his grades and to take singing and school seriously, and to refuse to "be a product of my environment."
"If you viewed my life as a graph," Taylor wrote, "You would see an abrupt spike in progress and productivity the moment I was introduced to Cindy."
It's worth noting that the students in Hartshorn's class over the past six years have had a graduation rate of more than 95 percent. Those graduates have strong ties to their former teacher, as a one-time student named Mollie Davis made clear.
"When I think about the woman I want to become some day," Davis wrote, "I think of Ms. H."
• Rhonda Pierre is an algebra teacher at Harshman Middle School who works closely with special-education students. I spent months at the school last year and just about every time I asked students, administrators and teachers for suggestions on a teacher to observe, they pointed me in Pierre's direction. It was easy to see why. She pushes her students hard, refusing to let any slide through a class but, at the same time, she spends a substantial amount of time learning about them — what challenges they face, what motivates them, and what she can do to get more out of them.
It's led to great success, including two straight years in which every student in the high poverty school who has gone through her 8th-grade algebra class has passed a state-mandated assessment exam.
Her desk is filled with letters from former students thanking her for being so tough on them and for refusing to let them fail. She's tough; she will pull students out of after-school sports if they're behind in math and chase them down the hallway if they leave a class without finishing their work. But as much as she pushes, she also gives.
One former student, Taday Tyson, wrote of a time he asked Pierre for tutoring after school. The teacher was packing up for the day, looking forward to plans she'd made with a group of friends. But as she looked at the student and considered the last-minute request, she made the type of decision so many great teachers make every day.
"She called her friends and let them know that she wouldn't be able to make it," Tyson wrote. "She stayed after with me and helped me out. That was a great life-changing moment for me."
• Debra Wolinsky, an educator with 38 years of experience, teaches math and special education at Broad Ripple Magnet High School. Students who nominated her wrote of her deep commitment to them and colleagues noted the tremendous academic progress her students make.
One student wrote of becoming homeless during a recent school year and receiving support and help from Wolinsky. Others wrote of the many times she stayed after school to help them catch up or to better understand the subject matter.
One day, Wolinsky found herself in a courtroom, pleading for leniency for a student who had committed an armed robbery. It was the kind of case that ends all chances of a positive future for so many young people in this city. Fortunately, this student had the right teacher.
"I saw something in this young man worth saving, and hoped others would, too," she wrote in an essay the award committee requested.
The judge listened to her plea, and for the next two years Wolinksy worked with the student, eventually guiding him through classes and college applications. They became close; she drove him to college in Kentucky when he was an incoming freshman, worked with him on homework via email, and later attended both his graduation and wedding.
That's an amazing story, an inspiring story. And it's one that plays out year after year in this city's schools.
Al and Kathy Hubbard, longtime education advocates, created the Hubbard Award after reading a column of mine last year about the closing days of the school year at John Marshall Community High School, a long-troubled school on the Far Eastside. In the column a college-bound senior talked of how he had improved in so many ways, academically and socially, thanks to a young teacher who had mentored him. He told me he owed his future to his teacher, saying she had taught him how to be both a good student and a good man.
That struck a nerve with the Hubbards and they have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to reward teachers like the one in the column, Jamie Kalb, in the coming years. Their goals are simple: to say thank you to great teachers, and to highlight how an educator can forever alter the course of a young person's future.
"These are people who are rarely recognized, who don't make a lot of money," said Al Hubbard, a businessman who served in the administration of President George W. Bush. "They are going above and beyond the call of duty and because of that they are saving kids' lives."
Four teachers won the award Wednesday evening. Here is hoping that many other teachers understand how much we all appreciate the work they do every day.
You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or on Twitter @matthewltully.
Finalists for the award
In addition to the four recipients of the Hubbard Life-Changing Teacher Awards, six teachers were recognized as finalists Wednesday:
• Elizabeth Althardt, ROOTS Satellite program.
• Nicole Fama, Arlington Woods School 99.
• Erin Lizer, John Marshall Community High School.
• Jeffrey Powell, Arsenal Technical High School.
• Antonia Powell-Brown, Arlington Woods School 99.
• Apple Quick, Project SITE.