Indian Prarie School District 204

English teacher wins students' hearts more than 60 times over

NOMINATE YOUR TEACHER

Know a superb teacher in the Fox Valley who deserves recognition? Nominate them for The Beacon-News’ latest Our Schools element, “Teacher Feature.” Send your and your teacher’s name, age, hometown and contact information, along with why you think your teacher deserves a place in “Teacher Feature” to: Denise Crosby, 495 N. Commons Drive, Suite 200, Aurora, IL 60504, or dcrosby@stmedianetwork.com. Nominations will be accepted from current and former students. Questions? Call Denise at 630-978-8425.

Ryan Doherty, 39, teaches sophomores, juniors and seniors at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, part of Indian Prairie School District 204. The Harvey native (who spent most of his childhood in Elmhurst) and Downers Grove resident has been a teacher for nine years.

Doherty was nominated for The Beacon-News’ “Teacher Feature” by one of his students at Metea Valley, who declined to give her name. “I would want all the attention to be on him (in this article), not on me,” the student said.

As to why the student nominated Doherty, well, “He is one of the best English teachers in District 204.”

“He is so dedicated to his job and I really look up to him; his personality stands out amongst the rest,” the student said. “He is very easy-going, trustworthy, compassionate toward others; his friendliness is contagious to everyone in the building, he cares for individual students and does not treat students as one big mass and that everyone is the same.”

“On top of that, Mr. Doherty is understanding, super knowledgeable, patient and extremely humorous,” the student continued. “He has the greatest love for books that he just shines his excitement onto the students (whether they like it or not) and shows how there is so much more to life than the area we live in.”

Not only that, but Doherty has been chosen as the Most Influential Educator 15 times by Indian Prairie Education Fund Top 30 Students, and as Most Influential Educator more than 60 times by Indian Prairie Scholars.

Here’s what Doherty had to say about being a teacher in the Fox Valley:

Where is your degree from and what type of degree is it?: I have a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance/musical theater from the University of Illinois-Urbana, a bachelor’s degree in English secondary education from Northern Illinois University, and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Aurora University.

Northwest Disability Connections: Organization helps students with ...

A group of parents from Naperville started an organization that focuses on job opportunities for their children and peers with disabilities.

NapervilleWorks started in 2007 as a partnership between parents, local business professionals and school vocational coordinators. Marjorie Sillery is one of the parents involved.

"We literally go out into the community, meet with businesses, meet with civic groups and give them the benefits of working with students with intellectual abilities," Sillery said.

Students in the program are from Naperville school districts 203 and 204 and also Indian Prairie District 204 from ages 18 to 21.

"There is so much need out there, especially in this area for jobs for the students," said Sillery. "Sadly, when they leave transition, only about 10 percent of them are employed at any level full-time or part-time."

Alex Lints is lucky. He has autism spectrum disorder and is working part time as a clerk at Naperville's school district's office. At 21, his mom Deborah is grateful that her son has a job.

"He right now started this job two days a week for a couple of hours a day, and hopefully as time goes on that will increase," said Deborah. "He needs that interaction with people and it helps him to grow as a young adult. My prayer for three years has been, 'Just please give him a job that he will be comfortable in working with people and to have it be here in the school district.' It's really phenomenal."

Vocational coordinator and transition specialist for the Indian Prairie School District Cyndy Perez says NapervilleWorks is a great resource for them.

"They help us by developing leads, by creating awareness, and then it gives us a lot more to go with," said Perez. "So we as the school district can get out there and develop the job and help train the students to make a long-term successful employment opportunity."

Alex is a good example as this kind of partnership is unique.

"I know of no other organizations quite like NapervilleWorks in the state of Illinois," said Perez. "The unique thing about NapervilleWorks is that it harnesses the network of all the parents and the community, and it brings all those linkages to the school system that may only have a couple of vocational coordinators to develop opportunities...We're going to need a lot more organizations like that I think to get these young adults employed, because without that, there's not going to be jobs for them, and they're good workers.

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