june11EHS - East Penn School District

implemented. He is proudest of his work with thementorship program, which he also designed and implemented.Over the course of ten years as facilitatorof this program, Dr. Kolman provided 200 studentswith mentors and internships throughout the LehighValley.Like many retirees, Dr. Kolman is looking forward totraveling. He also enjoys hiking and boating. He willcontinue to teach at Moravian after retirement andhopes to finish a novel he has been writing for the lastten years.Dr. Kolman feels privileged to have been exposed toover 6,000 bright minds. He says that teaching thesestudents is “like spending time with jewels.” He haslearned from his students that one can never predict achild’s future based on what he or she has done inhigh school.Barry O’ConnellBarry O’Connell taught for thirty-three and a halfyears. Before he was hired by the East Penn SchoolDistrict to teach business education, he taught a halfyearat South Mountain Junior High School. He beganhis career with East Penn at Emmaus High School,and he taught there for five years before transferringto the Eyer Junior High School. Eventually, he returnedto the high school, and in 1991 he beganteaching driver’s education.Mr. O’Connell coached and advised various extracurricularactivities throughout his career. He coacheda few sports teams, including high school football(twenty years), middle school basketball, and JVbaseball. He was also a class adviser for two years.Upon retiring, Mr. O’Connell looks forward to bikingand relaxing more often. Because he believes that lifeis a journey of discoveries, he welcomes the new opportunitiesthat retirement will bring.As a driver’s education teacher, Mr. O’Connell hadthe rare chance to spend extended amounts of timewith individual students, and the lesson he haslearned from them is that all of us should reservejudgment. The way people behave in particular situations,such as the classroom, does not define thembecause people are complicated, with many facets totheir personalities.Karen Sharkazy“The best is yet to come, and won’t that be fine...Karen Sharkazy taught social studies for thirty-nineyears, all in the East Penn School District. She beganher career in the high school, and transferred to EyerJunior High for a few years before returning to thehigh school. She is the first female hired to teach inthe high school’s history department, and she hastaught all levels of social studies and history.Mrs. Sharkazy served on numerous committees andadvised various extra-curricular activities during hercareer. She was an integral part of curriculum revisionin her department. For instance, she created an annualoral history project for her American Studies IIclasses. For this project, students interviewed membersof the community about the 1930s, 1940s, or1950s. Frequently, the students invited people theyinterviewed to a reception to express their appreciation.She was an advisor for National Honor Societyand the Cultural Diversity Club. In the 1970s, she advisedthe synchronized swimming show for one year.In 2004 and 2008, she helped to initiate and plan theSocial Studies Department Presidential Watch. Duringthis event, the social studies department invitedseniors to attend the viewing of the election results,participate in election activities, and listen to localgovernment officials speak. Mrs. Sharkazy contributedmuch of her time and her wisdom to the professionas a contract negotiator for thirteen years.Mrs. Sharkazy is proud to have worked with a departmentthat consistently demonstrates a positive spiritin its mission to keep its curriculum modern, rigorous,and relevant as it teaches the students of EHS. Shebelieves that learning is an adventure, and the historydepartment has shown that to its students every day.In retirement, she looks forward to the new adventuresand discoveries that await her. She enjoys sailing,spending time on the beach, traveling, and attendinglectures. She has learned many things fromher students, but most importantly, they taught her tonever underestimate their eagerness and ability tolearn.Beverly SpringerBeverly Springer, better known by her colleagues asDusty, taught English for thirty-seven years. Sheholds an MA in Education and English from LehighUniversity and a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish.She was hired by the East Penn School District in1976 after teaching drama in Laurel School District inDelaware for a few years. When she was hired byPage 28