Scott Karn in front of a NASA rocket test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi
Not many people can say that they are living their childhood dreams. Scott Karn, Brush High School Class of 2014, is surely living his. Karn is part of the Mission Design team for the Gateway lunar space station. Under NASA’s Artemis program, Gateway will serve as an orbiting outpost as part of the agency’s return to the Moon. Working out of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Karn, an aerospace engineer, is looking forward to the proposed 2024 launch of the new space station. “Gateway will not only be the first lunar space station, but also a capable exploration vehicle in its own right. This will be an unprecedented mission and an important stepping stone in the long road to human exploration of Mars and beyond”, said Karn.
Karn and his colleagues recently published a paper on the project entitled, “Analysis of Cislunar Transfers Departing from a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit Using Solar Electric Propulsion”-a subject so complicated that most lay people have trouble understanding it. Karn credits his teachers at SEL for helping him communicate complicated scientific information in a way that people can understand. “Orbital mechanics can be hard to understand even for the majority of engineers at NASA. Most of my job now is taking the complex mathematics and distilling that into a story that everyone can understand. Being able to write well and being able to tell a story has been incredibly helpful. Many engineers are great students but can’t communicate effectively. The good communicators are the ones that tend to excel. The entire English and History departments at Brush did an exceptional job at teaching students how to communicate well”, explained Karn.
Karn’s interest in space exploration began in childhood as he watched coverage about the construction of International Space Station. Participation in the Brush Robotics Club helped support his budding interest.
Karn recalls that Mr. Mikes, his physics teacher at Brush, went through the school’s archives, locating some literature on space exploration published in the 1960s to help foster Karn’s interest in the topic. Karn is a 2018 Case Western Reserve University graduate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering at Case and is scheduled to graduate this December. “A lot of students at Case graduated from nationally ranked high schools from around the country. I always took a lot of pride in the fact that SEL didn’t just prepare me to keep up with these students, but also outperform them in the classroom. I found that SEL Schools prepared me very well for success at college and beyond. The space exploration business is a human cultural endeavor and having that diverse cultural background that my time at SEL provided, has been helpful. The Gateway project has collaborators from all over the world. The experience I had at SEL, working alongside many diverse groups of people, provided an important foundation”, said Karn.
Karn looks forward to a future continuing to do what he loves best. “Everyday I get to work on problems that have never been solved before and it is very exciting to be a part of the next chapter in human space exploration.”
“A lot of students at Case graduated from nationally ranked high schools from around the country. I always took a lot of pride in the fact that SEL didn’t just prepare me to keep up with these students, but also outperform them in the classroom.”–Scott Karn
Space and Rocket Center near NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
School districts with the highest levels of white-opt out are coded in the darkest blue; those with the least in the lightest blue. (Courtesy of Beth Fry)
Five years ago, Beth Fry was a sophomore at The Ohio State University majoring in Public Affairs when she accepted a summer internship at the City of South Euclid. It was here that she and Housing Director Sally Martin began a joint project to dig into the deeper reasons behind what both saw as a mass exodus of white families from the South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District. Armed with research that Beth had been working on for the past year at OSU, the two began the SEL Experience Project blog to tell the stories of families and students who stayed in the district and to discuss publicly for the first time the statistics and possible reasons behind those who opted out.
As a 2013 graduate of Charles F. Brush High School in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District, Beth saw firsthand the white flight from the schools. “I started noticing it in fourth grade. There seemed to be a lot a fear on the part of parents about sending their kids to the upper elementary school, so many of my friends moved away or were sent to private schools,” recalls Beth. “It wasn’t hard to see that those moving in and those moving out looked very different from each other.”
Beth and her brother Colin attended SEL Schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Both went on to prestigious colleges: Ohio State and Cornell for Beth, and Northwestern in Chicago for Colin. Both were at the top of their respective graduating classes at Brush, with Colin being named Salutatorian of the Class of 2015. “Many Brush grads went on to top colleges and have done very well, in many cases much better than our friends who made a big to-do about attending private schools or moving away. I personally have seen little added benefit to those who opted out of SEL, unless it was moving to be closer to family or a desire for religious education. My classmates at SEL and I, meanwhile, received an excellent education while also being immersed in a diverse environment—both racially and socioeconomically—that’s helped prepare us for life beyond high school,” she says. “I remember being a freshman at Ohio State and listening to all my classmates commend the university’s diversity while I was wondering why there were so many white kids,” Beth laughs. “My time in SEL gave me a much different frame of reference.”
Now in 2020, Beth Fry has recently completed her Master of Public Administration at Cornell University. Her thesis, “Racial Imbalance Between Communities and Public Schools in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Non-Hispanic Whites Opting Out Amid Rising Black Enrollments,” seeks to scrutinize the issue more acutely by analyzing patterns of enrollment and the role of public policy in furthering segregation. Given the current climate of racial inequity in our country and the seemingly futile efforts to combat it, Beth’s findings are sobering and should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers and the public at large.
In terms of school segregation, the clock has gone backward at an alarming rate. Segregation in public schools is now comparable to rates in the 1960s, before court-ordered desegregation plans were mandated across the country. Cuyahoga County has the fifth highest black-white segregation in the nation. 73% of Greater Cleveland’s black residents would need to move in order for the metropolitan area to achieve integration with whites. In the United States more broadly, the Midwest has the dubious distinction of possessing the highest levels of metropolitan school segregation and between-district segregation of any region in the country; much of this is due in large part to discriminatory land use laws and housing policies that actively and legally pushed black Americans into racialized ghettos throughout the twentieth century.
In terms of school segregation, the clock has gone backward at an alarming rate. Segregation in public schools is now comparable to rates in the 1960s, before court-ordered desegregation plans were mandated across the country. Cuyahoga County has the fifth highest black-white segregation in the nation. 73% of Greater Cleveland’s black residents would need to move in order for the metropolitan area to achieve integration with whites.
In Cleveland’s east side inner-ring suburbs, the data is particularly alarming. Those communities have a higher number of white families opting out of public schools than those residing within the City of Cleveland. Beth’s data shows that for every two black families moving into these school districts, one white family moves out. East side inner-ring suburbs now have, on average, 78% black enrollment; west side inner-ring suburbs, by contrast, have an average black enrollment of 4% and the City of Cleveland has 67% black enrollment. Between 2009-2017, the white opt-out rate for South Euclid-Lyndhurst Schools was 71%—this refers to the percentage of white families who could use the schools but made other educational choices. In nearby Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools, which some South Euclid residents attend, a staggering 85% of white families opt-out of the public-school district.
A notable exception to this trend on the east side inner-ring of Cleveland is the Shaker Heights City School District, which has a white opt-out rate of 47%; this is the only east-side inner-ring suburb with an opt-out rate less than 50%. Shaker Heights schools has put forth a notable effort of promoting and managing diversity within the district for decades, and those efforts have obviously been fruitful. To put into perspective just how dire the situation on the east side inner-ring is, the west side suburbs overall have an average white opt-out rate of 38% and the east side outer-ring suburbs have an average white opt-out rate of 47%–the same as Shaker Heights.
During the last two decades, enrollment in South Euclid-Lyndhurst schools has declined, students qualifying for free and reduced lunch has increased exponentially, and the racial makeup of the schools has dramatically shifted—from 75% white for the class of 2000 to 16% white for the class of 2018.
Given that many of the same faculty, academic, and co-circular programs remain and the district has solid funding, Beth cites recent studies that the changing demographics are caused by white parents’ perceptions of a “racial threat”—the theory that as a minority group increases in size or visibility, the white majority perceives a threat to their security or position of privilege or control. “The difference in white opt-out rates across the county is almost entirely explained by the enrollment proportions of black students in a school district. The higher the percentage of black enrollment, the more white families will seek alternatives for their children to the community public schools,” Beth notes.
Or perhaps it’s the common assumption that high proportions of black students enrolled in a school district is correlated with lower socioeconomic status. Poorer students are assumed to be lacking in parental support and involvement compared to their more financially stable peers, which many extrapolate to mean disruptive classrooms and an adverse learning environment. The irony of all this, of course, is that if white families remained in the district and a balance of racial and socioeconomic diversity was retained, research proves that better outcomes for all students would be assured.[1] “At the end of the day,” Beth says, “most white families will put their own child’s educational future ahead of the long-term, greater good and the advancement of the community, no matter how well-intentioned or verbally supportive of racial justice they may be. But unfortunately, intentions don’t dismantle white supremacy.”
When asked if there is a solution to maintaining a healthy level of racial diversity in schools, Beth cites Louisville, Kentucky as a notable example. “Jefferson County Public Schools are now some of the most racially integrated schools in the United States,” commented Beth. The consolidation of multiple school districts under a federal court order in the 1970s has limited the exit options for parents, requiring them to either move far outside the urban core or invest in private education to avoid attending racially diverse public schools. “It’s part of the reason there’s less segregation now in the South than in the Northeast and Midwest—because school districts are organized at the county level rather than the local level,” Beth stated. Jefferson County Public Schools also implements a method of school choice, where school attendance is based on ranked preference as opposed to neighborhood zoning. The success of the school merger led the City of Louisville and Jefferson County to combine governments in 2003.
In Cuyahoga County, with 59 distinct municipalities and 31 different school districts, schools are still funded by property taxes in spite of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling this method unconstitutional in its 2002 decision in DeRolph v. State of Ohio. [2] This governmental fragmentation is creating an environment of segregation where some schools are “winners” with high standardized test scores and others are “losers” as increasing poverty rates and a loss of diversity results in lower test scores and state rankings—further driving away families who have other options. “Economists and sociologists have linked government fragmentation with increased racial segregation for decades. More school districts and municipalities means more options for white families fleeing desegregation efforts or other proxies for high black enrollments—like state test scores—because smaller units of government make it easier to exclude public good,”said Beth.
This is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy. As families are scared away from a diverse district, the district becomes poorer and test scores and rankings drop. The creation of a county-wide school district in Cuyahoga County would require tremendous political leverage and the buy-in of 59 municipalities with home rule powers, a daunting task considering the collective power of suburban communities and the hostility of the state government to the urban core.
When asked about her response to parents citing low test scores and other state metrics for their reasons for opting out, Beth comes back with evidence: “For the past 55 years, research has told us that the greatest predictor of educational achievement is socioeconomic status and parental education level. Only about a third of the achievement gap between white and black students is explained by school quality and classroom characteristics.” Indeed, this is why Beth’s own parents insisted on sending her and her brother to SEL schools. “My parents loosely knew about these findings and that their upper-middle class status put them in a position to make up for any shortcomings in our classroom education, should they arise. My dad regularly helped me as I struggled with my calculus homework and my mom was a mainstay in the PTA up until my brother and I graduated. While some parents may have qualms with using their children as guinea pigs for some form of social equity project, I was one of those guinea pigs and now I have an Ivy League master’s degree.”
Kirk and Hope Fry, a mechanical engineer from small town Indiana and a food scientist from rural Appalachian Ohio, also discussed racial issues with their children from a young age. “I first learned about white flight at the dinner table when I was about 10 or 11,” Beth says, around the time she first started to see a large exodus from SEL schools. “My parents’ decision to stay in SEL despite the massive shift in racial makeup was part of a desire for my brother and I to grow up around people that were different from us, to ensure that we were more comfortable with difference from an earlier age. We often joked that us staying in the district helped ensure diversity as many other white families left. In recent years, they’ve articulated their reasoning for all this as ‘living their values.’ To them, one of the fundamental aspects of loving your neighbor is believing your kids aren’t too good for the schools that serve your community and actively investing in them.” The Frys have been South Euclid homeowners for over 25 years and have no plans of leaving anytime soon.
In the meantime, convincing families that a decision to use their local neighborhood schools is a decision that furthers racial equity can be a difficult argument to make if test scores and state rankings imply that they are providing a substandard educational environment for their children. Arguments that the state testing process is unfair, especially within diverse school districts, are valid, but those are often the only benchmarks that families use to compare districts. Beth further noted that, “Social networks often play a critical role as well, and if yours believe the community public schools with a high proportion of black students is inadequate, you’re likely to make decisions that support that view.”
If we truly want change, and if we are honest with ourselves, we must start with how our children are educated and with whom they sit alongside day after day.
The Black Lives Matter movement seeks to call attention to the inequities and injustice that have plagued people of color in our nation for centuries. If we truly want change, and if we are honest with ourselves, we must start with how our children are educated and with whom they sit alongside day after day. As Richard Rothstein, author of the bestselling book The Color of Law, notes in a 2019 article, “Some might argue that ‘a black child does not have to sit next to a white child to learn.’ They are wrong. Not only should black children sit next to white children, but white children should sit next to black children.” Communities like South Euclid and Lyndhurst are in a unique position to be at the forefront of this discussion. Attending school with children of various races and ethnicities fosters understanding and acceptance, and lays the groundwork for enduring equality. More importantly, in a country where black Americans possess a tenth of the wealth of white Americans, diverse schools allow less-advantaged students to have access to the resources of the most-advantaged. Prioritizing school diversity, once a mandate for our nation that has long been abandoned, must again come to the forefront of discussions on creating racial equity. White flight from public schools is an act of covert white supremacy; the time has come for all of us to critically examine our own thoughts and choices, no matter how difficult. Our future depends on it. Let’s get to work.
White flight from public schools is an act of covert white supremacy; the time has come for all of us to critically examine our own thoughts and choices, no matter how difficult. Our future depends on it. Let’s get to work.
When Devon Range graduated in 2017 from the University of Chicago with his bachelor’s degree in Political Science, he could have accepted a lucrative career opportunity or gone straight to graduate school. Instead, he is spending two years in Slavic Village at the Fullerton School of Academics through City Year Cleveland. Devon assists in fourth and fifth grade classes with a focus on attendance, social and emotional growth, and coursework. Together, he and his students work on setting goals to drive better results inside the classroom and out in the world. His latest project involves starting a recycling program in the school.
Devon recalls struggling during his late elementary school years, having relocated from Cleveland Heights to South Euclid. Settling into a new school district wasn’t always easy. “Ages 9 through 11 were not my favorite years,” Devon recalled. Things changed for the better when Brett Spicer became his teacher and coach. Devon’s interactions with Mr. Spicer continued from junior high through high school. “I was having some academic issues in the 8th grade and Mr. Spicer sat me down and talked to me. He helped me make up work and get back on track. As a teacher and high school swimming coach, Mr. Spicer was great at team building and creating a sense of belonging”, said Devon. Over time, academics became a high priority along with success in athletics. During his years in South Euclid-Lyndhurst Schools, Devon participated in wrestling, football, baseball, and soccer, as well as concert and marching band, National Honor Society, and Academic Challenge Team, among other things.
Devon’s strong academic and co-curricular activities served him well, as he was accepted to attend the University of Chicago where he participated on the wrestling and rugby teams. After graduating with a political science degree, Devon decided to come back to Cleveland—lured back by the low cost of living as well as the proximity to his family. Devon’s father is a teacher in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and his mother is a vocational counselor. His parents’ commitment to education influenced Devon’s decision to work in the City Year program. As he looks to his future, Devon feels drawn to a career that combines his interest in the environment with public policy. In his free time, he volunteers at Holden Arboretum, learning as much as he can about the region’s tree canopy. “I spent so much of my time in the Cleveland Metroparks Euclid Creek Reservation growing up, it had a big influence on me”, said Devon.
In reflecting on his time in SEL Schools, Devon recalls often hearing misconceptions about the district. “Growing up, I heard how the schools were becoming terrible, which was so untrue,” recalled Devon. “I got a great education at SEL Schools which prepared me well for college and for success in life.”
Experiencing photography and painting classes with Ms. Hadley Conner and Ms. Sarah Curry was probably one of the biggest highlights of my high school experience for many reasons. I was a quiet person in high school and struggled to find a place where I fit in. I didn’t want much attention, and the dark room of Ms. Conner’s photography lab was a place I could feel safe and be creative and find a way to express myself. I feel that’s important for high schoolers now more than ever before. It’s really hard to navigate that time. It’s only been ten years since I was in high school but things have moved really fast and changed a lot. Not only were both teachers mentors and friends to me, but their art classes made me a more well-rounded person. It helped with my admission to college. It furthered my understanding of art and why it is so important.
Skills I learned in photography class help me to this day. Learning how to set up a scene in a photo is something that needs to be taught in design classes as well. Now when I am designing promotional materials at my job, doing the social media for it, taking photos at events- I can remember the basic tenets of photography that were taught to me then. My painting class was also a safe haven for me 1st period with Ms. Curry. I was always into doing watercolors and things like that but she taught me how to properly paint. This gave me a creative outlet that lasted through my college years and beyond. Now I have to design attractive displays at my library job and the drawing and painting skills I learned and honed in high school allow me to do that. No one ever told me when I was getting my master’s in library science at Kent State that you’d need that creative spark for marketing and museum displays, but it has helped me immensely. It’s those extra skills that help you stand out from the crowd when you’re interviewing for jobs.
After high school I completed my bachelor’s degree with honors from Kent State University in 2011. I obtained a graduate assistantship from the Kent State Honors College which paid for my master’s degree which I received in 2013. Since then I have held a library assistant job at the Kent State Geauga campus, then worked for a year as a librarian at Hudson Library & Historical Society. From there I applied for and received a 3 year contract to work abroad at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji which I am currently completing.
I know one of the most important things you need in high school are teachers who believe in you and foster skills in you that you did not know you had. I don’t know if later on I would’ve done as well in school and at university without kind teachers who gave us a way to express ourselves and believed in us. I know many people think the arts are unnecessary or don’t give relevant job skills. But the design and artistic skills I learned aid me every day in my work managing the social media for the library at the University of the South Pacific. I have to create museum displays and being able to put together a cohesive display with images and text is something that is taught through art programs. But- make no mistake- the fine arts stand on their own as well! I may be a librarian but I also know many people from Brush High School who went on to pursue degrees in fine arts and are very successful. My art skills helped me when I applied for the Kent State honors college and then they funded me through my master’s degree. When admissions workers look at college applications they look at you being a well-rounded individual- not just what job skills you may have learned in high school.
I often bragged to people after I left Brush that we had better darkrooms and materials than some universities even had. I appreciated so much the chance to learn those skills and find part of myself through art. I needed that as a high school student when I was having trouble at home. There are skills and benefits to be learned in the arts that other subjects don’t touch on. As a violinist I hope that students today have the chance to learn more about the arts- music, film, photography, painting, and more because what kind of a society would we have without the fine arts? Those are the things worth living for, not the mundane everyday jobs we hold. It’s possible to find a job with a way to earn money to live on and still appreciate the arts and grow up learning about them. They should not be defunded, abolished, or replaced with facsimiles of “art classes.” I hope Brush High School would continue their legacy of having stellar art classes for students. It will only help them as they develop into young adults and inspire them to reach further than their everyday expectations.
If you ask around, one of the most positive things you’ll hear about Brush High School is the quality of the art instruction. The reputation of the art department was one of the main reasons we allowed our son to transfer into Brush from private school. In our family’s experience, the art department at Brush is run much like a college of art and design. The instructors focus on their primary discipline and all are working and award-winning artists. Instead of having generic art classes taught by instructors who teach all general aspects of art, if one takes a photography class at Brush, there’s reasonable assurance that it will be taught by Hadley Conner—an award-winning photographer. She gave our son a lasting passion for film photography—something he is putting to good use in his senior year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sarah Curry has given many Brush graduates a passion for painting and drawing. This is obvious by the number of Brush students and Brush graduates who attend the openings of her art shows around town, and cite Ms. Curry’s influence as inspiration for pursuing their own art careers.
It would be impossible to overstate that the dedication of the Brush art teachers has led to positive, sometimes life-changing outcomes for many of their students. Many students who may never have considered a career in art, found their passion at Brush and have gone on to pursue impressive careers in art.
Brush students consistently rank among the top in local and regional art competitions. Entering these competitions requires the teachers to go above and beyond to help the students prepare and submit their work. Each year our students receive scholarships, and sometimes full scholarships to art school.
Art education is under threat. Funding for art programs is being cut at the federal level and we have an administration in Washington that clearly does not value public education. There is always a temptation when funding becomes scarce, to reduce or eliminate classes, like art and music, that are considered to be electives. What can we do? It’s time to be engaged as families and start standing up for the value of art education. We can’t take it for granted. We need to work together to ensure that our children and those to come, have access to the best quality art education in South Euclid Lyndhurst Schools. It’s something that truly sets our district apart, yet it can be so easily lost.
To further this goal, I am proposing that we gather together to discuss what’s happening and brainstorm ways we can work together to address the challenges we’re facing. Please join us on Sunday, July 23rd from 3-5 pm for our inaugural meeting of SEL Art Advocates! We’ll be meeting at 1515 South Belvoir Blvd. in South Euclid. I promise it will be time well spent. Look for a calendar invitation posted on SEL Experience’s Facebook page! –Sally Martin
On Tuesday, February 14, our community lost a wonderful young man in the most startling and devastating way. Alec Kornet, a seemingly healthy, athletic, 17-year old died after having trouble breathing at hockey practice with absolutely no prior problems or symptoms.
Alec was a very special young man, an honors student, leader on the hockey, baseball, and soccer teams as well as the marching band and just a universally loved person. To lose such a promising young soul in such a shocking way shook our community to its core.
However, the South Euclid-Lyndhurst (SEL) community has rallied around the Kornet family and each other in an overwhelming way. While I’d never say there is anything good to come out of this tragedy, the response from the community has served as a reminder of how special and underappreciated SEL is. Over the years, we’ve seen many move away in search of greener pastures of perceived school superiority or “better” neighborhoods. We’ve heard and felt the underlying questions about why we are still here. Well…this is why.
We’re proud of our diversity, we’re proud of our school district, we’re proud of our students, and we’re proud of our families. We are truly a community in every sense of the word. While we mourn the loss of Alec Kornet, we are reminded of how special SEL is and in remembering and honoring him, we grow even stronger together.
SEL teachers are always making a difference in the lives of their students, although they may not realize how much of a lasting difference they’re making every day. Melanie Kay (Ferrara) Finkenbinder, Valedictorian of the Class of 2000, spoke with us recently about what she’s been up to since graduation and how her teachers and her time at South Euclid-Lyndhurst Schools influenced the person she has become.
Working now as a primary care physician at Lower Lights Christian Health Center in Columbus, Melanie serves the Latin American immigrant population. She is also a medical student educator and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Global Public Health. “The part of Columbus our clinic serves is a food desert. There are few grocery stores in the area and many of our patients are food insecure. One new initiative in our health center is the addition of a free ‘grocery store’ right in our building.” Melanie is devoted to improving the health of Columbus’s Latino population—making sure they have equal access to health care in spite of the poverty and discrimination she sees her patients face everyday.
After leaving Brush, Melanie attended Washington University in St. Louis and went on to medical school at The Ohio State University. Melanie is married to David, a structural engineer, and they have two sons: Paul (3) and Henry (1).
Melanie’s Spanish language classes at Brush have paid off, as did her semester abroad in Chile during college. She uses her foreign language skills every day as she speaks Spanish to her patients and to her children at home. In discussing her time at Brush, Melanie reflects on the classes and teachers that made a difference in her life and helped shape her future. “Ms. Doerder’s AP Biology class was hugely formative. It’s how I, and at least six of my classmates become interested in medical science, and decided to become physicians.
The AP teachers and their hands-on approach influenced me to excel. Ms. Cassidy, Mr. Welsh, Mr. Mastrobuono, Mr. Nemecek, and Ms. Clemson helped me to become a leader and learn to work as a team member.” In addition to her AP classes, Melanie was very involved at Brush, serving on Student Congress, participating in the theater program, and being part of the softball, soccer, and swimming teams.
Melanie’s future goal is to move with her family to a developing country to help set up a health system from the ground up. This desire to help the underserved and level the playing field is common among many Brush graduates. Melanie feels that attending SEL Schools made a difference in her perspective about the world. “The more that we continue to segregate ourselves by skin color and religion, the more we will continue to misunderstand each other. I believe that it will be the kids who grow up and learn in diverse communities who will solve the problems of inequality and injustice in the United States.”
South Euclid native Jason Pryor, 28, is on his way to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil to compete in the fencing competition on August 9.
A 2008 graduate of Brush High School, Jason was encouraged by his parents Brenda and Eric from a very young age to try new activities with passion and purpose. “My parents always encouraged me to go for what I wanted to do and experience new things like travel, music, culture, food,” said Pryor. “They always encouraged me that if I wanted to pursue something, I should go for it.”
His dedication to commitment to success has made him the Number One Fencer in the United States and the only member of the U.S. Team that will compete in this year’s summer games. Recently, Pryor also won the bronze at the 2015 Pan American Games and last year upset France’s Gauthier Grumier, the world’s No. 1 ranked fencer at a competition in Doha, Qatar.
Pryor grew up on Stillmore Road in South Euclid with his siblings Jarod, 30 and Taryn, 26 in a home where his parents, Brenda & Eric still reside. After graduating from Brush High School in 2005, he attended Ohio State University where he led their fencing team to the NCAA championships. Pryor got his start in fencing at a young age, which led him to winning the Bronze Medal as a cadet at the 2003 nationals. “I had to chase the feeling of what it was to win all those bouts and stand on the podium.”
Pryor has spent the last six years as a full-time resident athlete at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and is currently training for the Rio Olympics at the New York Athletic Club, where he has helped the club win four team championships.
Even though Pryor has always had an interest in fencing, he has also pursued many other interests, including music and writing. At Brush High School he played Sax in the Marching Band and Clarinet in the Concert Band. At Ohio State University, Jason earned a BA in English and plans on pursuing a career in writing screenplays for movies and television after retiring from fencing. He credits his English teachers at Brush for encouraging him to pursue writing.
“I had some of the most amazing teachers in all subjects, but my favorite teachers were my English teachers,” said Pryor. “The incredible length my teachers went to show me how amazing literature could be started me on the path to wanting to write screenplays.”
Pryor sees the connection between athletics, academics and being successful in a chosen career. They all require a dedication and commitment to practice, training and perfecting technique. “You really need to dedicate an incredible amount of time to the details to getting what you want and always pushing towards the next goal,” said Pryor.
“I was a mediocre fencer when I was a teenager and over the years I’ve had to work hard in order to raise my game, climb the ranks and start jumping hurdles and obstacles that seemed impossible,” said Pryor. “Having that knowledge that I can achieve in one of the most difficult sports has helped shaped my attitude that, if I work hard I can achieve success in the future.”
Another correlation between preparing for athletics and achieving other life goals is being prepared mentally and emotionally for whatever obstacles lie ahead and learning how not to let negative thoughts get in the way of achieving success whether in preparing for competition, job interview or pursuing future career goals.
“I allow my mind to experience negative thoughts, but then I imagine myself writing the negativity on the piece of paper and then I imagine burning the piece of paper and dismissing it,” said Pryor.
After the Olympics, Jason has no intention of retiring from competition and hopes to compete in the next Olympic Games in four years. However, he will also spend more time following his passion for writing and pursuing a career in television and filmmaking, having already written television pilots and screenplays for film. Whatever comes his way, Pryor is willing to putting in whatever time and effort it takes to be successful.
“I have an incredibly long and intense amount of focus,” said Pryor. “It’s not a question of whether or not I will succeed because the level of stress I have had as a competitive athlete and learning how to deal with that stress, makes anything else feel like child’s play.”–Reprinted with permission from South Euclid Magazine.
Chances are if you have been to an event at the South Euclid Lyndhurst Schools, you’ve run into Jodi and Frank Turk. To say that the Turk family is involved in SEL Schools is an understatement. From being the Chair of the Scholarship Committee, the President of Arc Boosters, running the Brown and Gold Banquet, and heading the prom committee among a myriad of other volunteer roles, Jodi Turk’s energy and enthusiasm for our schools is unsurpassed and awe-inspiring. Her motivation comes from the tremendous support that she and her family has received from the school district over the years. “The teachers have been my rock”, says Jodi as she recounts the struggles her daughter Gabby has endured since being diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer at age 11. When Gabby faced yet another of her seven surgeries and fell behind in her classes at Brush, the teachers rallied around the family and came to their home over winter break to help Gabby catch up. Due to the extraordinary support Gabby received, she did catch up, graduated with her class in 2015, and is now a freshman at the University of Akron.
The three Turk children have had great experiences in SEL Schools. Rachelle, Class of 2013, was involved in Excel Tech, orchestra, volleyball, and many clubs throughout her time at Brush, and is now a junior at Cleveland State majoring in Business. Adam, Class of 2018, is in band, and plays football, soccer, basketball, and baseball at Brush. In spite of her health concerns, Gabby played volleyball, was part of the cosmetology program through Excel Tech, and participated in orchestra.
Although for many years, Jodi Turk has been an outspoken advocate for SEL Schools, that wasn’t always the case. When their oldest daughter was heading to Greenview, the Turks had heard many negative rumors and began to question whether they wanted to continue in the district. Even though they’d had a great experience at the elementary level, the Turks were so alarmed by the rumors that they listed their Lyndhurst home for sale and began looking at other school districts. Due to difficulty in quickly selling their home, the Turks decided to stay put and try Greenview for one year. “We found out the rumors were wrong. Greenview turned out to be a phenomenal school. All of our children had outstanding teachers throughout their time in the district”, explained Jodi. The Turk family’s opinion of the schools goes beyond acknowledging the outstanding teaching staff and curriculum. “Our Superintendent Linda Reid is a powerhouse. Our Board of Education is incredible too. SEL Schools have so much to offer. Fear and misinformation have caused some families to overlook our schools and that’s a huge loss to the community”, said Jodi. “If we won the lottery today, we’d never leave SEL Schools.”
The survey we posted has received 174 responses so far. Not unexpectedly, it’s a mixed bag. As many of us are all too aware, the perception of our schools does not match the reality for most families that use the schools. We were heartened by the many positive comments we received, and equally saddened by the negative comments that were posted. In order to move forward in the most positive way, we have to confront the negative as well as embrace the positive. We believe that by talking about it, we can start to make it better. We will come together as a community and work together to make our schools the best they can be. There is work to be done, but this is a community that cares deeply and we plan to harness that positive energy to achieve remarkable results. Please share your ideas and join the conversation.
When Devon Range graduated in 2017 from the University of Chicago with his bachelor’s degree in Political Science, he could have accepted a lucrative career opportunity or gone straight to graduate school. Instead, he is spending two years in Slavic Village at the Fullerton School of Academics through City Year Cleveland. Devon assists in fourth and fifth grade classes with a focus on attendance, social and emotional growth, and coursework. Together, he and his students work on setting goals to drive better results inside the classroom and out in the world. His latest project involves starting a recycling program in the school.
To further this goal, I am proposing that we gather together to discuss what’s happening and brainstorm ways we can work together to address the challenges we’re facing. Please join us on Sunday, July 23rd from 3-5 pm for our inaugural meeting of SEL Art Advocates! We’ll be meeting at 1515 South Belvoir Blvd. in South Euclid. I promise it will be time well spent. Look for a calendar invitation posted on SEL Experience’s Facebook page! –Sally Martin
The SEL Experience Project 