Nicole Morys knows what kind of teacher she will become this fall.
“I want to teach because I want to inspire kids to grow and to be the best version of themselves, and also to just make my teaching environment comfortable for them and safe for them,” said Morys, who is from Gilberts. “I just want them to be at school every day with a smile and ready to go.”
And, Morys says, she is equally “ready to go” thanks to her new B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education through the NIU College of Education’s PLEDGE (Partnering to Lead and Empower District-Grown Educators) program with Elgin Community College.
The initiative has produced more than 130 teachers who completed their bachelor’s degrees on the ECC campus – learning from NIU faculty who made the eastbound commute – and with their clinical and student-teaching experiences close to home.
Placed this year in a fourth-grade classroom at U-46’s Timber Trails Elementary School in Hoffman Estates, Morys found countless opportunities to apply her coursework in English as a Second Language.
“With all the classes I’ve taken through this PLEDGE program and my student-teaching experience, I feel I know exactly what to do when I get my own classroom,” she said. “I’m looking forward to making connections with my kids and making sure that I impact their lives.”
Morys is one of 19 new graduates who gathered April 30 for a completion ceremony.
Joining her were Jozephine Carlson, Michelle Espinosa, Abigail Grabacki, Marisol Lara, Angela Lelli, Justyna Lesniak, Bianca Mancilla, Kayla Mathis, Casey Meyers, Jaritza Patino, Vianca Patino, Lauren Pena, Sloane Pezen, Dulce Rivera, Natalie Sanchez, Trista Skelnik, Anna Tyschenko and Mary Kate Wolek.
Rebeca Solis, a 2023 alumna and first-grade, dual-language teacher in U-46, served as the keynote speaker as she described her journey so far and “the very strong foundation” her degree laid.
For NIU College of Education Dean Mary Earick, who spoke at her first ECC-PLEDGE celebration since becoming a Huskie last July, the event was uplifting.
“I’m here as your colleague. Thank you for being with me in this moment,” Earick told the students and their families.
“As dean, I have the privilege of seeing how the collective work in this room from each of us extends well beyond a classroom – well beyond a campus,” she said. “At NIU, and here in Elgin, we are committed to building thriving communities: communities where we support each other; communities where institutions like Elgin Community College and NIU align our mission, vision and systems that are in place for long-term wellness.”
The partnership “is exactly what a thriving community looks like in practice,” she added.
“PLEDGE reflects our deep commitment to an equity-focused learning environment and also to an equity-focused learning community, one that values our lived experiences just as much as your academic preparation, and one that recognizes that strong schools are built by educators who are connected to the communities they serve,” Earick said.
“Through PLEDGE, we’re taking our licensure programs to where potential educators already live and work – and where they’re needed most,” she added. “We’re here to invest in our communities and to support multiple dimensions of wellness.”
ECC PRESIDENT PEGGY HEINRICH confirmed that.
“I love this event, I love this program and I brag about it whenever I go to my state meetings. Thousands of children’s lives will be shaped by the educators in this room,” Heinrich said.
Her reasons were many for calling PLEDGE “truly extraordinary and what makes us at ECC so proud.”
Just as important, she added, are future teachers who reflect the fabric of their hometowns.
“As a Hispanic-Serving Institution, which we are, we feel we have a profound responsibility and a privilege to meet our students where they are and then prepare them to meet their students where they are,” Heinrich said.
“This program does that because, through the PLEDGE curriculum, every graduate here has earned not just their teaching licensure but also their bilingual and ESL endorsement, equipping them to serve the multilingual, multicultural students who fill our districts’ classrooms,” she added, “and in a region as diverse as ours, that’s not a bonus. It’s a necessity.”
New alumna Michelle Espinosa agrees.
“One of my goals was to teach dual because I have that Spanish background and I just want to give back to my community and help those kids who need that extra support in building language skills in both languages: English and Spanish,” Espinosa said.
“Growing up, I saw how much impact teachers made in me – how much they supported me academically and personally as they built those relationships,” she added, “so it just made me think, ‘Well, I would like to become a person – a role model – to someone else. To my future students. To give feedback. To give support. To build relationships that will be long-lasting.’ ”
She already has a teaching job for the fall in a first-grade, dual language classroom at Community Unit School District 300’s Lakewood Elementary School in her hometown of Carpentersville.
“I feel super-prepared,” said Espinosa, who has sensed a lifelong “intuition inside me that I was made to be a teacher.”
“The program was challenging at first – just the idea that I had to go through all these classes – but little by little, I had the mindset that, at the end of this whole program, I was going to be an educated teacher,” she added. “I like how all the professors are willing to give their support, no matter what, and how each one has relevant academic skills in what they’re teaching us.”
ANNA TYSCHENKO UNDERSTANDS.
“We learned all about how to teach, not just like ‘the math,’ ” said Tyschenko, who is from Bartlett. “Same thing with learning to read. I did not know anything about that. Phonics? It was all new to me learning about their skills at their young age.”
Spending the last year as a student-teacher at U-46’s Heritage Elementary School in Streamwood, she now is eager for her own classroom.
“At Heritage, I have a class that’s got some behavioral concerns. Working with them, building that sense of belonging, getting them to feel more confident in themselves, and feeling like they can do it and succeed? Getting them to that step has been really important,” she said.
That triumph also showed her that “I really like working with kids.”
“I actually wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to,” Tyschenko said, “but just getting in the process, and actually teaching, and seeing those ‘aha’ moments, and seeing them grow and mature as they go through their schooling experience is just really fulfilling.”
Angela Lelli also basked in career confirmation during her placement at Lords Park Elementary School in Elgin.
“I loved my experience. I’ve gotten really close to the school and the students, and it has just been an awesome year. I feel that I learned so much from my mentor-teacher and the students. They were all so great,” said Lelli, who grew up in South Elgin.
She found ample opportunity to implement her NIU coursework, “especially in classroom management – knowing how to approach certain situations and just how to apply different instructional approaches and strategies to provide the best support for all my students.”
“I feel really prepared,” she said. “NIU has been able to provide many different experiences and great professors who really know what they’re doing and who provide such support and guidance.”
Lelli now can’t wait to start teaching children in first- or second-grades this fall.
“They’re just so much fun with so much energy and they’re so excited every day. They really enjoy school and they get a lot of those lightbulb moments, which really makes such an impact for me as a teacher,” said Lelli, who worked in a preschool during her high school years. “I’ve just grown to love that age group.”
GOOD NEWS ALL AROUND, Heinrich said.
“These children don’t just need information. They need somebody who sees them, and they need a trusted adult who helps them find their voice, discover their strengths and navigate a world that’s not always designed for them,” the ECC president told the graduates and their families.
“For many of the children you’ll teach, you’ll be the person who reflects their language, their culture and their story back to them” she added, “and who says, ‘You belong here, and you have something important to contribute.’ ”
Just imagine the positive outcomes that will deliver, Earick added.
“This is contributing directly to the vitality of local schools and communities. This is wellness at the community level, and that’s what happens when partners are grounded in shared responsibility as well as a shared vision,” the NIU dean said.
“Your success represents persistence, purpose and deep commitment to your current and future students, your families and your communities,” she added. “You are exactly the kind of educator Illinois needs, and we – your colleagues – are so honored to walk along beside you.”
