In 1992, one of The Beacon-News editors published a short article. It gave me pause at the time, and I’ve thought about it many times over the past 30 years.
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She referenced the idea that students were frequently asked about teachers who were inspirational or influential in their lives, but that teachers were rarely asked about students who were positive influences on them. She invited teachers to write about students whom they would like to recognize as significant in that regard.
As an educator who spent 33 years in middle and high school classrooms, I found no shortage of young people who affected me positively in many different ways. I give thanks and credit to that editor of 30 years ago who helped me to see and value kids differently and in ways beyond their academic progress. Many helped me to be a better person during their time as students and as citizens and community servants in the years after their graduations.
I could write a book (someday I actually might) about all the students who affected my life in such a positive way, but I will introduce you to two of them for this story.
At the editor’s invitation in 1992, I wrote about Araceli (Escareno) Perez who was a senior at East Aurora High School at the time. She worked part-time during her high school years while continuing to do well in school. She helped to care for her siblings and was a catechist teaching small children at her parish. She was extremely busy, but accomplished all that was expected of her with style and grace.
I wrote about Perez again in August of 2020, saying that her experiences as a student led her to pursue a career in education. She graduated from Waubonsee Community College, and began working as a preschool assistant in the East Aurora schools.
She became an assistant and translator in the district’s Jump Start program, and progressed to become a full-time parent educator in that program. She has worked with families continuously for 22 years, and stresses to parents of preschoolers that they are teachers also. She inspires as a community leader, and stresses that her work “comes from her heart.”
Deacon Timothy Nickels, who grew up in Aurora and Sugar Grove, was a hard working and likable kid when I first knew him as a middle school student. After high school, he pursued a career in law and has been a successful attorney for many years.
But he has also been a community servant for decades. He was wonderful as a kid, and has been inspirational as an adult. But I can also say that he hasn’t surprised me — I expected greatness of him from long ago.
He has been part of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services organization for several decades, and also serves on the board of that group. Its mission is to provide pro bono (unpaid) legal services to help provide access to the courts and to justice that many people are unable to afford. These volunteer attorneys sometimes ask to receive cases in their areas of specialty.
Over the years, Nickels has helped with dozens of cases, but has done more of the volunteer board work in recent years.
The spirit of volunteerism and of strong religious faith then began to lead him to investigate and then to consider becoming a deacon in the Catholic Church. He pursued those studies (difficult in ways for a person still working full-time) starting in 2014, and was ordained a permanent deacon in 2018.
Nickels sees his role as helping in the church building itself with Masses, sacraments such as baptisms and marriages, and in sacramental preparations. But he also sees much importance with duties away from the building, such as helping with wake services and cemetery committals. In a unique position because of his roles as husband, father, attorney and deacon, he has helped with counseling those who may ask for it.
“It’s been a wonderful vocation for me, and I’m looking forward to doing more if I can,” he said.
If a young teacher, or a young person contemplating a career in teaching, were to ask my thoughts about a teaching career, I would have the following advice at the ready.
Although you will have some difficult and exhausting days from time to time, you will be inspired. You will begin to understand that you are not teaching English, math or science, but that you are teaching kids. You will learn many times more from them than you will ever teach them.
Some of them may even call or text you just to ask how you are doing. You will observe with pride what they have accomplished in their lives in service to others.
Tom Strong is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.