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  • I think that there's no doubt

  • that I have been inspired, most of all

  • by my parents, particularly my mother;

  • and I don't mean that just in the traditional ways that children are

  • inspired by parents

  • but both of my parents were

  • role models for lifelong learning.

  • So I graduated from high school a year early. I went to Northern Illinois

  • University; lived in a dormitory;

  • did that traditional freshman and college thing.

  • And at the conclusion of the Spring semester, I got called in to the dean's

  • office and they said

  • Ted going to class is part of going to college;

  • and since you didn't do much of that this year,

  • we don't need any more beer majors at Northern Illinois University. Why don't

  • you take some time off and think about whether college is really for you?

  • And so I'd I didn't get invited back; and I didn't belong there anyway.

  • And so I went back home.

  • I lived in Aurora and and got the kinds of jobs that high school graduates

  • got; and decided after three or four years of that,

  • that I really did need to go to college. And I started at

  • College DuPage, the community college there in the

  • western suburbs; and it changed my life.

  • And the reason that it changed my life

  • was not because it put me on a very strong career

  • trajectory by going to college, but I had the best

  • teachers at COD that I ever had in my entire

  • educational career; and I mean that very sincerely.

  • Waubonsee Community College was the community college in town. It was just--

  • --their downtown campus was just a few blocks from where I worked.

  • I thought you know maybe there's something over there I can do at night,

  • some program or learn a new skill and so

  • I what went into the foyer, and they had a big rack with all the pamphlets on

  • there of all the different programs they had, and I was looking there.

  • And my next door neighbor's sister came around the corner

  • of the hall, and she said, "Ted Raspiller, what are you doing here?" And I said, "Well hey, Sue.

  • I'm looking for,

  • you know, just something to do at night, maybe I'll take a class." I forget what

  • pamphlet I had my hand, but we we're kinda chuckling about

  • that be more for enjoyment than a career field.

  • And she says, "Have you ever thought about teaching?" And I said,

  • "You know, I've thought about teaching, but I'm not so sure.

  • (You know, here I am from the family of teachers, right.) She said,

  • "No, I'm serious. I'm teaching. That's why I'm here. I teach in the

  • GED, the high school completion program

  • two nights a week, and we're always looking for

  • instructors, particularly male instructors. So I called her back

  • later that week. And I went in, talked to the coordinator of the program, her boss.

  • And she said, "We'd love to have you a couple nights a week."

  • And so I was

  • (this is probably three or four weeks into it.) I was driving home

  • got it to the first stoplight, and I thought, "You know,

  • if Jose and I could have just had 15 more minutes

  • he would have understood multiplying fractions

  • and been ready to start Algebra next week."

  • And that was what was on my mind as I was driving home that night. And I drove down to

  • the next stoplight,

  • and I thought, "Ted Raspiller, you've never in your life

  • wished you could have spent 15 more minutes at work."

  • So I started--I dwelled on that, and I got to thinking

  • because it's not work. It's a passion. It's something that I really enjoy.

  • I don't want to

  • be thought of as a place that we only go to

  • on our path to a four-year school or we only go to

  • when we're trying to get skilled or re-skilled to enter or re-enter the

  • workplace.

  • I want to see John Tyler as that partner

  • for all of the people that we serve--

  • --all of our constituents throughout their career.

  • It's not just enough to get them in the door. It's not just enough to get them in

  • the door and get them through one program.

  • It's that lifelong learning partner. If there's anything that I can leave

  • at John Tyler, I hope its

  • thats same excitement in everybody that works here,

  • everybody that attends here and everybody in the communities that we

  • serve

  • that sees that same value in building and diversity,

  • building and experiences and continuing to be better

  • and more effective at what they do whether where that's at work

  • or at home raising their families, or in learning,

  • that's the greatest legacy that I could leave.

I think that there's no doubt

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