Susanne Sayles ’11 is McMinnville’s Young Educator of the Year
Reprinted with permission of the News-Register. • By Starla Pointer, May 1, 2018
Susanne Sayles was a student leader when she was attending McMinnville High School. Now in her fifth year at as a teacher at Mac High, she works with current student leaders, who in turn help other students explore their passions and feel part of the school.
“Teaching is about giving kids the connection,” said Sayles, who also teaches the sophomore language arts and the college-preparatory program AVID.
Students need to learn facts and skills, she said, but she wants their high school years to give them even more. She said she wants them to graduate having “laughed; thought critically; been able to be true to themselves.”
And while they’re at Mac High, she said, she wants them all “to feel they have a place here, that they’re going to be seen and be known,” she said.
Sayles efforts led to her being named McMinnville’s Outstanding Young Educator.
She found out at a staff meeting when Mac High colleague Kelly Carlson made the announcement. Sayles had nominated others, but never expected to receive the award herself.
“What an honor!” she said, noting that her school has many great teachers who qualify for such an award.
She was especially honored to hear about it from Carlson, “an incredible educator” with whom she had worked on the Cascade freshman team. “She’s helped me and supported me,” Sayles said. “She’s been my rock.”
Sayles will be honored at the Distinguished Service Awards banquet Monday, May 7, in the McMinnville Grand Ballroom.
Also scheduled for honors are Debbie Harmon Ferry, woman of the year; Doug Hurl, man of the year; junior citizen Jennifer Feero; and outstanding farmers Josh and Erica FitzGerald.
The DSA event will start at 6 p.m. with a social gathering, followed by dinner and the awards. Tickets are $40 each, available from cassie@oregon.com or 971-241-0153.
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Sayles grew up in McMinnville, the daughter of Stephanie and Scott Sayles. She went to Patton Middle School, where she took part in activities such as drama, including the fractured fairytale production “Once Upon a … Time?”
She continued her activities at Mac High.
She was president of the Doernbecher Club, secretary for the National Honor Society and team captain of the girls’ rugby team. As a senior, she was co-editor of the 2006-07 yearbook with Kelsie Hermens.
She participated in Bear Buddies and Link Crew.
As a senior cabinet member in student government, Sayles attended the Oregon Association of Student Councils’ Summer Leadership Workshops at Western Oregon State University. Delegates received leadership training in organization and time management, communication, project planning and meeting skills, goal setting and ethical decision-making.
She also was involved in business and marketing programs, including the Action Corner student store. In fact, she prepared to study marketing or political science when she went on to the University of Oregon.
Another direction called, though.
“I’m from a family of teachers,” she said, noting that her grandparents, parents and sisters all have taken that route.
So she tried an education course at UO. The class focused on demographics and how people react to their surroundings. It was eye-opening, Sayles said.
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Sayles left the Eugene school after two years and transferred to Linfield College as an education major. In 2011, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class.
She started her career at Mac High teaching American literature half time. She moved to full time to teach 10th-grade English, ninth-grade core classes and AVID, a program that helps dedicated students prepare to apply for and attend college.
AVID includes many students who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. “It’s about skill building and understanding who you are,” said Sayles, who is one of five teachers who run the program.
She said she especially loves working with sophomores. “I enjoy the kids. They’re so much fun,” she said.
She also enjoys the style of writing students learn as 10th-graders, argumentation.
Her favorite teaching assignment is leadership, though. When she was being interviewed for the job by former Principal Kris Olsen — who had been her principal when she was a Grizzly — they talked about her experience as a student in the leadership program. Then he offered her the chance to teach the program.
“It’s my baby,” she said.
“I’ve been lucky to get kids who are incredibly creative and in tune with the student body,” she said.
She noted that her role as adviser often is to bring a dose of reality to their enthusiastic planning. Students understand, and she said it’s fun to watch them grow into confident leaders.
Students said they appreciate Sayles’ efforts to strengthen the leadership program. To join the class, they need to have knowledge of the school and ideas about making it better, said Maria Martinez, the 2016-17 student body president. And Sayles wants them to be really passionate about leadership, Martinez said.
The young leaders said they learn not only skills such as organizing meetings and speaking in public. They also come to understand the importance of taking part in a community, whether it’s their community at Mac High or the larger community as an adult.
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Sayles wants her leadership students, and those in her other classes, to learn about themselves, as well. One way of encouraging that is a “Find Your Truth” writing notebook project she does in collaboration with fellow language arts teacher Matt Brisbin.
Students use writing to understand what’s happening in their lives and in society in general, she explained. “We try to understand what we do now impacts later life,” as well, she said.
For some students, “Find Your Truth” is a chance to talk about themselves in an authentic way — something they may have suppressed because of peer pressure or other factors, fearing they wouldn’t be accepted if they didn’t fit the mold, she said.
“It’s OK to have your own opinions, to be vulnerable, to think what you think,” Sayles said.
Another of her efforts to bring about understanding — of one’s self and others — is the Voices panels that are part of Mac High’s annual Unity Week.
Sayles first experienced a Voices panel, in which students and staff members talk about deep concerns and challenges, when she was at another OASC summer workshop — similar to the one she attended as a student, but this time as an adult leader and teacher. She is on the OASC board and is a director in training.
Seeing the OASC Voices event showed her “the impact of hearing things validated by others’ experiences.”
With the help of her leadership students, Sayles brought the idea to Mac High in 2016.
That first year, she said, she was floored by the response, all of it positive. The audience spontaneously applauded, and many students ran up to hug the speaker.
“I’d never seen that before,” she said.
“In other assemblies, we talk about the need to be accepting and kind, but never really talk about the why,” she said. “When they hear from their peers, they get it.”
Afterward, she said, things felt different in the halls of Mac High: more positive, more accepting. And “students who shared were holding their heads a little higher.”
Voices now is a tradition at Mac High. “It’s my favorite thing we do all year,” she said.
