Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell

About Terry Lee Marzell

Terry Lee Marzell holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State San Bernardino. She also holds a certificate for Interior Design Level 1 from Mt. San Antonio College. She has been an educator in the Corona Norco Unified School District for more than 30 years.

Social Studies teacher Al Young was also a celebrated race car driver

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Asian American Social Studies teacher Al Young , who taught in public schools in Washington state, was also a celebrated race car driver. —Photo credit: Atlas Obscurer

Many Chalkboard Champions have earned recognition in fields other than education, and Al Young is a great example of this. Al taught high school in Seattle, Washington, for 37 years, but he is also famous as a former world champion drag racer.

Alfred John Young, a Chinese American, was born in 1946 in Whittier, California. His father was a colonel in the US Army Reserve, and later a businessman His mother was an artist and art collector. Al and his two siblings were raised in San Francisco, where Al graduated from George Washington High School. After his high school graduation, he enrolled at the University of Washington where he majored in English literature. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1968 and his Master’s degree in 1972.

After his college graduation, Al served for many years as a teacher, tutor, counselor, and advocate for the Upward Bound program. He also founded one of Seattle’s first alternative schools, the Summit K-12 School, in 1972. In the 37 years that this gifted teacher worked in Seattle public schools, Al instructed vocational courses such auto shop and physical education, electives such as film study and Chinese cooking, and rigorous academic courses such as history, AP American Government, and AP Comparative Government and Politics. He also served as the adviser to school teams that participated in the Chrysler Trouble Shooting contests, YMCA Mock trial competitions, Junior State of America conventions, and he has led high school groups to the South Pacific and Washington, DC, for close-up learning. As if all this were not enough, this remarkable educator also coached volleyball, softball, and basketball.

In the world of drag racing, Al competed in Pro Bracket racing. He has won the American Hot Rod Association World Championship, and between the years of 1976 and 1996, he twice won major drag racing events, and three times was declared the winner of Bremerton Raceway’s Day Fire Nationals. In 1988, Al was inducted into the Firebird Raceway Bracketeer All-Stars in Boise, Idaho. Al has also been involved with the preparation of classic high performance race cars. For his accomplishments as a race car driver, he was inducted into the Bardahl Corporation Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Hot Rod Association Hall of Fame, Northwest Division.

For his work in the classroom, Al has earned many accolades. He has been honored as one of Seattle Public Schools’ “Heroes in the Classroom” by such entities as Vulcan, Inc., Russell Investments, and the Seattle Seahawks organization. In 2008, this accomplished Chalkboard Champion retired from the teaching profession. His wife, Vicki Johnson Young, is also a retired school teacher, having taught in the Seattle public school system for 28 years. As retirees, Al and Vicki drove throughout the United States and Canada in their 1973 Plymouth Roadrunner Muscle car. Al has also practiced martial arts and actively served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle and worked for the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Al passed away in Shoreline, Washington, on Dec. 11, 2022, at the age of 76.

Teacher Clara Comstock helped orphan children find homes

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Clara Comstock

Teacher Clara Comstock, second from right, with a colleague and a group of orphan children she escorted on an Orphan Train. Over the course of her career, Clara helped place more than 12,000 orphans into loving homes. Circa 1910. Photo credit: Children’s Aid Society, New York

Throughout our country’s history there are many examples of dedicated educators going above and beyond in order to help young students, both inside the classroom and in their personal lives. One of these was Clara Comstock, a hardworking teacher from New York who helped placed more than 12,000 orphan children into loving homes.

Clara was born on July 5, 1879, in Hartsville, New York, the daughter of hardy pioneer stock. Her father was a farmer and blacksmith. As a young girl, Clara was educated at the Canisteo Academy in the neighboring town of Canisteo, New York. She graduated in 1895 at the age of 16 and spent the next several years completing her teacher training courses.

Clara inaugurated her career as a teacher in 1903 at the Brace Memorial Farm School in Valhalla, New York. Her students were New York City “street Arabs,” homeless boys that were orphaned, abandoned, or removed from their homes because their parents were deemed unfit or unable to adequately care form them. At the Farm School, these kids were taught fundamental literacy skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics, some vocational training, including carpentry, shoe-making, and box-making.

After a few years, in order to be of greater service to homeless kids, Clara accepted a position with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), an organization which still exists today to benefit needy children. The CAS organized the famous Orphan Trains, small groups of children that were transported west and placed in foster homes on farms and in rural communities. Clara escorted many of these groups, conducted background checks on prospective foster parents, and made periodic checks on the children she placed. She did this work until her retirement in 1928, then she spent another two decades working for the CAS in-state foster care program.

During her lifetime, Clara placed more than 12,000 homeless children in homes, painstakingly keeping track of each one of them until they reached adulthood. She kept a personal diary and filled several trunks with meticulous records of the children she worked with. Decades later, these records became invaluable resources for Orphan Train riders who were seeking information about their origins.

You can read more about this amazing and dedicated teacher and the orphan train system in my book Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon.

Georgia’s Jemelleh Coes helps others become better teachers

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Former middle school teacher Jemelleh Coes contributes her considerable talent to helping others in the profession become better teachers. Photo credit: Educator For Equity

Many fine educators contribute their considerable talents to helping others in the profession become better teachers. This is certainly true of Jemelleh Coes, a former middle school teacher from Decatur, Georgia.

Jemelleh was born in Brooklyn, New York, ​the daughter of immigrant parents. She was raised in Decatur, Georgia. She was the first in her family to attend college. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Special Education (2008) and her Master’s degree in Education, Teaching, and Learning (2010), both from Georgia Southern University (GSU). While studying at GSU, Jemelleh traveled nationally and internationally to collect data from a variety of educational systems in order to discover ways to make improvements in local school systems. In 2018, Jemelleh graduated from the University of Georgia with her PhD in Educational Theory and Practice with certificates in Education Law and Policy, Disability Studies, and Qualitative Research.

Jemelleh has taught at both the K-12 and university level. She spent six years teaching English/Language Arts and mathematics in both the general and special education setting at Langston Chapel Middle School in Statesboro, Georgia. For this work, in 2014, she was named Georgia’s State Teacher of the Year. Then, from 2013 to 2014, she served as a board member for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.

Currently, Jemelleh serves as an advisory councilperson for the Georgia Partnership of Excellence in Education. She also serves as the Director of Teacher Leadership at Mount Holyoke College, where she leads the program, developed curriculum, and provides professional development opportunities for teacher leaders. She is also a professor at the University of Georgia where she teaches future educators along with future professionals dedicated to disability advocacy.

In addition, Jemelleh serves as a teacher mentor for classroom teachers throughout the state of Georgia. In this capacity, she supports teachers with career development and special projects. She is also an educational consultant and motivational speaker.

To learn more about Chalkboard Champion Jemelleh Coes, click on this link to her website:  Educator For Equity.

Teacher and former CA legislator Patrick O’Donnell garners CalRTA award

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Educator and former California State Assemblemember Patrick O’Donnell was the keynote speaker at the 2023 Convention and Delegate Assembly in Los Angeles last week. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

Classroom teacher and former California State Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell was the keynote speaker at the 2023 Convention and Delegate Assembly of the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) which I attended in Los Angeles last week. At the convention, the former legislator garnered a prestigious Friends of CalRTA Award, given in recognition for his dedication to protecting the pensions of retired teachers, for improving the professional environment of classroom teachers, and for expanding educational opportunities for students. And he recounted his return to the classroom after serving eight years in the State Assembly. The address was realistic, but hopeful and humorous.

Patrick was born in Long Beach on Feb., 25, 1966. As a young man, he attended California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in History and his Master’s degree in Public Administration. He then spent nearly 20 years in the classroom as a high school History teacher in the Paramount Unified School District. While there, he helped create a program that established more instructional time for students, thereby improving graduation rates and qualifying more students for college admission.

Patrick inaugurated his career in politics in 2004 when he was elected to the Long Beach City Council. He served ten years in this position. In 2013, he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the California State Assembly. He represented District 70, which includes the Los Angeles Harbor District, San Pedro, Long Beach, and Catalina Island. He served in the State Assembly from 2014 to 2022.

In office, Patrick served as the Chair of the Education Committee.In that role, he consistently advocated for increased funding for K-12 schools; advocated for better access to the core curriculum for English-language learners; expanded investments for school facilities; and sought additional funding for career technical and vocational education programs. “I know that kids need multiple paths to success,” Patrick declared. “Not every kid is going to a four-year university. Statistics bear that out. We need to provide them opportunity as well,” he continued.

He also championed efforts to help close the student achievement gap by securing funding to establish the CSU Center to Close the Opportunity Gap located on the campus of CSULB. In addition to the Education Committee, Patrick was also a member of the Assembly Committees on Transportation; Public Employment and Retirement; and Budget, including the Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance.

Once he retired from the legislature, Patrick returned to his position as a history teacher at Paramount High School. The school serves grades 10 through 12.

 

Utah’s Lily Yuriko Havey: Teacher, artist, award-winning author

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Former Utah English teacher Lily Yuriko Havey is also an artist and an award-winning author. Photo credit: Lily Yuriko Havey

During Asian American/Pacific Islander Month, I’m devoting some of my blog posts to educators of Asian descent. One of these was Lily Yuriko Havey, a high school English teacher who was incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. She is also an artist and an award-winning author.

Lily was born in Los Angeles in 1932. She was only nine years old when the Empire of Japan attacked Peal Harbor. Shortly after that, President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 resulted in 120,000 West Coat residents of Japanese descent being removed from their homes and relocated to internment camps throughout the interior. Lily and her family were among those who were relocated. Lily’s family was sent first to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, and then to the Amache Relocation Center in Prowers County, southwestern Colorado.

Once the US won World War II, Lily and her family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Later, Lily garnered a scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She earned her Bachelor’s degree there. She then returned to Utah, where she earned her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Utah.

Once she earned her degrees, Lily inaugurated her career as an educator, teaching high school English, creative writing, and humanities in Utah public schools. Her career as an educator spanned 13 years.

After Lily left the classroom in the 1970’s, she decided to develop her artistic talents. She experimented with creating stained-glass suncatchers. This endeavor led her to establish a stained-glass artwork business which she maintained for over 30 years. In the 1980s, Lily expanded her artistic endeavors. She began to paint watercolors, and quickly recognized her paintings were helpful in overcoming the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffered as a child when she was an internee. When she displayed the watercolors in galleries and art shows, she was asked to share descriptions of the paintings. These descriptions led her to write her memoir, GAsa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth behind a World War II Fence. The volume was published in June, 2014, by the University of Utah Press. The efforts earned high praise. In 2015, Lily garnered the Evans Biography Award, presented for a book written during the previous calendar year. The award is administered by Utah State University.

To order a copy of Lily’s book, simply click on this link to amazon: Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp:  A Nisei Youth behind a World War II Fence.