By Avanti Chajed

Gargoyle staff reporter

Posted Tuesday, May 1, 2007, The OG, news

IF YOU'RE EVER around Uni High on a Monday evening, you won't have to look hard to find English teacher Adele Suslick.

Like clockwork, she's in the Mac lab or a first-floor classroom with her Global Studies Initiative students, working diligently on their latest project, which might be an in-depth look at the problem of human trafficking or preparation for this summer's much-anticipated trip to the Dominican Republic.

For her many hours of uncompensated service to the school, primarily but not exclusively on behalf of GSI, Suslick recently received the Parent-Faculty Organization's Colin E. Thorn Award, the highest honor given to nonstudents for voluntary service to Uni High.

Suslick is only the second teacher to win the award, which has been given since 1995. Fine arts executive teacher Rick Murphy received the honor in 1999.

“I am truly honored and extremely grateful that the Uni community recognizes what I love to do,” says Suslick. “I accept the Colin Thorn Award knowing that there are many others at Uni who work equally hard for our students.”

BUILDING THE GSI PROGRAM

The roots of GSI go back to the International Career Academy, established in 2000 by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in an effort to encourage high school students to study international business and politics.

As reported by the Gargoyle last year, the “cornerstone” of ICA was a concept known as problem-based learning, an educational method that involves investigating and planning solutions to issues in the real world. Uni's ICA students studied a number of different topics, ranging from the economic and cultural implications of Japanese inflation to the regulation of African conflict diamonds.

When the ICA lost its funding two years ago, Suslick asked her students if they would like to continue the program.

“I spoke with my students as soon as I found out that state funding had been cut,” Suslick told the Gargoyle. “No one wanted to abandon the program. They wanted to continue studying global issues, and they wanted to retain the problem-based nature of the program. The challenge for me was to find significant problems for them to work on and a meaningful way to showcase their effort.”

Thus GSI was born, with Suslick volunteering her Monday evenings with the students, working through international problems by way of large group discussions, individual research, and the assignment of homework.

This summer Suslick and 10 GSI students will be part of a 15-student, five-teacher group heading to the Dominican Republic from June 15 to 29 to help the migrant worker community of Batey Libertad build a house, renovate a school, plant trees, dig a well, and recycle plastic waste. Students and teachers from Urbana High School and Von Stueben High School are also on the team.

The group is seeking to raise $4,000 for building materials. As part of their fundraising efforts, GSI members are selling sustainable coffee.

In fact, all this week GSI has been selling coffee and doughnuts each morning at Uni. The venture has been so successful that the group will continue the sale next week.

And just today came word of several major donations from Uni parents totaling $700 — a testament to the program that Suslick has been instrumental in building.

WELL-DESERVED RECOGNITION

“Mrs. Suslick puts in a lot of work for GSI,” said junior Shara Esbenshade. “All the effort she has put into GSI and this trip to the Dominican Republic has already paid off, because we've now established this program as one that will continue, taking Illinois high school students to do service work in the Dominican Republic every year. She definitely deserves it.”

Other students are also very thankful for the work Suslick puts into GSI.

“Her dedication to GSI shows how much she really cares about her students and their learning experience,” said senior Emma Anselin. “Now, with all the work she's done to actually send GSI students abroad to the Dominican Republic — she had a dream for us and she made it come true, all through her own initiative.”

For two years Suslick also has been running and teaching Uni's summer school program for fourth and fifth graders. Although she did this voluntarily at first, she received money for it last summer and will this year as well.

Each spring semester, the PFO board of representatives takes nominations for the Thorn award. After the members have researched and discussed the nominees, the winner is decided with a vote of at least three-fourths of the board.

Journalism adviser David Porreca nominated Suslick.

“In talking to some of Del's GSI students, I have been impressed by how enthusiastic they are about studying international issues that many of their peers would regard as far removed from their own lives,” he wrote in his nominating letter. “Del has done an outstanding job of clarifying the connections between the global and the local. She has inspired her students to learn on their own, which is perhaps the greatest accomplishment a teacher can claim. And she has done all this without seeking attention or extra pay.”

Colin Thorn, who is still living, served as the Uni boys soccer coach for several years, without pay. To honor his dedication the PFO set up the award in 1995 in his name. His two sons are both Uni alums.

Here are the past winners:

• 1995 — Colin E. Thorn

• 1996 — Susan Marshall

• 1997 — Linda Brokish, Chris Main

• 1999 — Richard Murphy

• 2000 — Dan & Kim Kennedy

• 2001 — Chris Merli, Donald Greeley

• 2002 — Susan & Mike Ciolli, Peter Folk, Paul Grayson

• 2003 — Chet Zych

• 2004 — Susan Bruce, Robert Coverdill, Richard & Susan Schnuer

• 2005 — Janet LeRoy

• 2006 — Kathy Marshak

RELATED

— Gargoyle coverage: Aiming high with GSI

— Gargoyle coverage: Human Trafficking Conference 2006

— Gargoyle coverage: GSI students prepare for summer trip to Dominican Republic

— Gargoyle coverage: Uni students go global to better the world