Today I sit down with Dr. Ashley Luft, a board member with the Momence School District, a former teacher in the district and the current Director of Student Retention at Olivet Nazarene University. She has dedicated her professional life to the support of young people, families, and the communities they share. Ashley strikes me as someone who is living a very purposeful life in the service of a greater good. Someone once said that every person is the sum-total of their experiences. I think that might oversimplify the complexity of becoming, but I do think the lives we touch, the struggles we share, and the victories we celebrate give shape to the people we become and, ultimately, to the communities we build. Dr. Ashley Luft personifies that idea as completely as anyone I’ve ever met, and it was a genuine pleasure to share this moment with her today.

Today, I have the privilege of sitting down with Amanda Cantwell, our district’s Occupational Therapist. when I interviewed Amanda’s son, Gaven, last Spring for our Summer 23 issue of the Momence One magazine, I might have known that he had a pretty special set of role models at home. But my conversation today with Amanda confirmed it. All of us are the sum total of our experiences. They shape us, sometimes according to plan and sometimes against our will, into the people we become. They create in us a deeper understanding of ourselves and of those on this journey with us. Amanda has certainly had the good fortune to harvest a rich bounty of life experience — both personally and professionally — and it has informed the person we see before us today in this important role. Her acquired understanding of how kids are wired and how to work with that wiring serves our students and our district exceptionally well.  

It is always an honor to sit down with educators and others committed to helping our children make the most of their potential. Momence is loaded with people like this. People who volunteer their time for a whole range of support of our youth, from coaching to scouting, to faith-based activities and so much more. But to do so professionally is a very deliberate life choice that creates both liberation and limitation; it is almost always an all-encompassing sort of role that means saying no to another professional opportunity. It can also be one of the most rewarding jobs known to humankind. To be a teacher is to be one of the most important foundational influences in the lives of our young people and, frankly, in the life of our community. I had the privilege of sitting down with a remarkable teacher today —Kelly Handley, a third-grade teacher at Je-Neir. She is shaping the lives today of the people who will shape our world in the not-too-distant future, and I think that’s a pretty big deal.

Today, I sit down with Lucas Bielecki and I couldn’t be happier about it. When Mr. Anderson made the introduction, and explained that Lucas was a Momence product, I had already had a brief opportunity to meet with him as an interview subject for the Momence Magic video we recently produced, and so I was excited to get to know him better through today’s discussion. A 2014 alumnus of Momence High School, Lucas is a lifelong member of the community, who now serves the community of his youth as an educator, a coach and, I suspect, as a mentor to young people. In so many ways, he embodies the unique Momence character that distinguishes this place from all others. He is someone who understands this special place because he is this place.

Today, I’m honored to bring you an insightful conversation with someone who truly lives and breathes this transformative power of language—Oraia Jaramillo. Serving dual roles as a High School Spanish teacher and the Director of the Bilingual Program in Momence Schools, she is a living testament to the power of words to connect worlds. A Kankakee native and a Loyola University alum, Oraia has had a global journey that took her teaching English in Santiago, Chile, before she returned home to Momence in 2017. As a mother of three, she believes that language is not just about communication but is also a profound bridge between cultures and generations. I had the privilege of meeting Oraia recently and was immediately struck by her passion for connecting people through language. The twinkle in her eyes told me that she wasn’t just teaching Spanish or managing a program; she was facilitating meaningful dialogues that change lives.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Ryan Drenth, 6th grade math teacher at Momence Junior High School. But Ryan is a man who devotes time and energy in several other important ways to the development of our young people, as you’ll learn from our conversation. The work of teachers at Momence like Ryan is critical to the opening of doors our children experience and to the positive outcomes to which those doors lead not only while still in school but for the years that will follow. Teaching is a bit like academic gymnastics because, in large part, we see the highly orchestrated and disciplined conduit through which subject matter must be channeled, much as a gymnast must know the precise arc of a routine before it is performed, but we also see the fluidity in transference, metaphorically, between one set of muscles and the next of a gymnast in the academic improv theater that a classroom must, by necessity, occasionally become, as it conforms in pace or complexity to the needs of its occupants. In the end, the teachers of Momence are extraordinary and absolutely critical to the making of a better world through the education of our youth. And Ryan Drenth is certainly no exception in his commitment to the role and his dedication to his students. 

Today, we hear from someone who is shaping young lives at Je-Neir Elementary—Alexis Johnson. Like other professional educators in the Momence District we’ve spoken with, Alexis is building bridges for learning through the power of relationship. Her Fourth Graders know she is there for them. They understand that they are important to her. And they see empathy, kindness, and humor modeled in her classroom every day. The role of teachers in our society, like Alexis, is absolutely key to our best future as a community, a Nation, a world. And when I have the opportunity to see those shaping forces, like Alexis, in action, and hear the conviction in her voice, I have renewed hope that we are, indeed, building our best future in these classrooms. Those 4th graders at Je-Neir are in for a wonderful year with Miss Johnson, and one day, perhaps, the grown-up version of one of those young voices will appear, as a teacher, on a Podcast like this, to tell an audience how much it meant to them to be in her class all those years ago. And how her enthusiasm and transparency inspired them.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Frank Petkunas, the Regional Superintendent for Iroquois and Kankakee Counties. As the head of the Regional Office of Education, Frank plays an important role in the delivery of a range of services with which many of our listeners may not be particularly familiar. Sometimes, in education, we speak in what seems like a foreign language to some, using acronyms and jargon for things that attach to real, every day lives, so I thought it would be interesting to dive into and decode some of the behind-the-scenes work of the ROE—the Regional office of education—as well as learn a bit more about the person at the helm. 

Think of all the things a child needs to know just to be prepared for the challenges of first grade, much less high school or college. But parents and helpers, like Frank, have been educating kids for generations. The old expression, “It takes a village” is absolutely pertinent to the educating of a child because it is such a large and important task. Now multiply that child by the hundreds in Momence, or the thousands across Iroquois and Kankakee Counties. To do right by all of those kids requires a very special village, and many thousands of committed people within that village working together to see to the education of all our children. It requires coordination, compassion, empathy, and a tremendous range of skillsets. What Frank and his colleagues in education do is remarkable and emblematic of one of the finest things one person can do for another—teach them. As we think about Momence Schools, and the others across our region that educators work in every day on behalf of our children, I think it is right to be mindful of the dedication they bring to the task, and the difference they are making in lives.

In this episode, I have the opportunity to speak with a man who worked with students in, perhaps, one of the most challenging environments in the country. Before he came to Momence, Jack Richards taught in an Alaskan community where the only packaged meat he purchased was bacon. Everything else was freshly caught. Hard work was in no short supply, but neither were deeply impoverished children a thousand miles from what you and I might consider a proper metropolitan area. A native Midwesterner raised in Chicago gives Jack as divergent a look from the great Northern Tundra of Alaska as most could imagine, and anyone who can weather that kind of environmental diversity has something pretty special to offer. 

Jack is one of those people who may not have taken the most direct route into teaching, but it is apparent in his expression of heart for people and, particularly, for young people, and for the game-changing potential of education, that he is right exactly he belongs. If you’ve met Jack, you already know it, but he is a master relationship builder. Someone who takes an interest in you and in doing so, signals a preparedness to join you on your journey. I think the kids in his charge feel that preparedness and I suspect that quality that will not only serve him well in his administrative career but in the lives of, perhaps, thousands of Momence students who will pass through those halls to which he so regularly seeks his escape from state reports and desk duty behind the administrative role. If you haven’t yet met Jack, do yourself a favor and go introduce yourself. You’re going to like him and I think you’ll find the same kind of instant connection I suspect the students of Momence already have with Mr. Richards.

School is out, baseball and grilling are in full swing, and our summertime rituals have us about as far away from the day-to-day, kids-to-school rituals as they could have us. And yet, speaking with educators, the lives they lead, and the impact they have is still our favorite thing to pack into a podcast. Today, we have the privilege of chatting with 19-year teaching veteran, Kristi Porter, who joined us here in Momence about 9-years ago and has some powerful observations to share about why early childhood education is so important and how we can build better outcomes by investing just a little bit of time each day into really listening to children, and hearing what is important to them. She’s making a real impact on the future of our community through her work with the youngest among us. Let’s jump in and meet Kristi Porter.