By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
ELLIS — A simple question, “Has your son considered applying to Harvard or Yale or Princeton?” and a little bit of encouragement from one special teacher has opened up a grand adventure for one Ellis High School graduate.
Alyssa Dawson, EHS English and drama teacher, dared to suggest this dream to her student Lane Fischer. Not only was Fischer admitted to Yale on scholarship, but he nominated Dawson for the Yale Educator Recognition Program.
Fischer is the only EHS student to attend an Ivy League school, and Dawson is the only teacher from Kansas this year to be recognized through the Yale Educator Program.
To get this story started, you have to go back a bit.
Dawson did not attend an Ivy League school. She received her bachelor’s degree at Sterling College, her master’s degree at K-State and her teaching certification through FHSU.
Dawson comes from a long line of teachers. Her mother and her father were both teachers in Macksville, and her grandfather was a professor of education at Sterling College. Her master’s degree from K-State is in English. As she was teaching expository writing class at K-State to earn here way through her grad program as a GTA, she saw a gap between what high school English teachers were teaching and what writing skills students needed in college.
K-12 focuses on grammar and creative writing, she said, whereas college students are expected to do a lot of expository writing.
She also said she fell in love with teaching at K-State. She said her department put a lot value on ensuring their GTAs were good teachers. She had considered entering the media field upon graduation, but instead opted to take a job in Ellis in 2011 and entered the FHSU Transition to Teaching program to earn her teaching accreditation.
“I’ve made this job into my dream job. I have made it what I would like it to be and what I want to do,” she said.
She said she loves teaching writing.
“I feel any student can learn to become a better writer. It is not just a talent that you have, but it is a skill to be honed,” she said.
Dawson loves to write, so she was looking for a grad classes that would boost her skills. A friend told her Harvard offers online extension classes that were “super fun” and only cost $200. She signed up for a Poetry in America class. She eventually took four classes for 20 graduate hours in English through Harvard.
“I said, ‘This feels great. This is good.’ It’s a little intellectual pursuit. … I got all of this fantastic feedback on my writing. I was filling in gaps in my knowledge on poetry. I was giving my students new skills to try out and enjoy and because the classes were also offered to undergraduates, I encouraged my students who wanted a liberal arts or humanities credit to take this with me.”
Fischer and a couple of other students signed up for the class too.
“This was all part of Lane’s journey alongside of me,” she said. “He was becoming a better writer, and I was learning how to help him become a better writer. He was taking the class beside me. We were talking about the class and poetry. He was realizing he could belong at a place like Yale, and I was realizing that a place like Yale is not some random elite place that only certain people can go.”
Dawson had Lane as a student starting his freshmen year in her theater and forensics classes. He competed in speaking events in forensics on a team that would go on to win three state titles. Dawson subsequently had Fischer in her junior and senior English classes.
Ivy league was not necessarily the first thing that came to her mind when Fischer entered her classroom.
“What you think as a teacher is, ‘Wow. This kid is a really good speaker or this kid is a really good writer or he’s great on the stage,’ ” Dawson said. “I remember thinking that immediately his freshmen year — how interesting he was on the stage and what a great speaker he was and what a great thinker and kind kid he was.”
The previous year, one of Dawson’s students was admitted to the Stanford.
Because Fischer had a forensics teammate who had success with his top-tier college application, known as the Common application, Fischer decided he would apply as well.
She asked Fischer’s mom at parent-teacher conferences where Fischer was planning to attend college, and she said K-State.
When Dawson suggested Fischer shoot for an Ivy League admission, his mother was a bit shocked.
“This is not something we have considered,” his mother said.
Dawson told Fischer’s mom, “I think he would think it would be an adventure to apply, and I think he might enjoy the writing that they require. If worse comes to worst, he goes to K-State and he’s happy. If not, why not shoot for the moon.”
Lane was on board. He came to school the next day and was ready to start writing admission essays.
Coming from a rural family, Yale’s community housing system appealed to Fischer, so he selected Yale as his early admission choice.
Dawson and Fischer talked over his application essays as he was writing them.
“I would say, ‘They are not just looking for smart kids. You’re smart. You know you’re smart. They want genuine. They want authentic kids. That is going to be what sets you apart,” she said.
One application question asked what class would you teach at Yale and why. Fischer said he would teach Kindness and Civility in the 21st Century.
“That is a really good indicator of the kid he is — soft-spoken but a leader — compassionate but not afraid to speak his mind. I could see clearly as he was applying those qualities were going to get him in,” Dawson said.
This is not Dawson’s first teaching award. Dawson was a semi-finalist for the Kansas Teacher of the Year Award last school year. However, she said being recognized by Yale was special because she was nominated by a student.
“To me, it’s a really kind outpouring of gratitude from a student,” Dawson said.
Dawson has not ended her connection with the Ivy league. This summer, she received a recruiting email from Harvard to teach in an online pilot class for high school students. She accepted and is teaching 40 students through the Harvard program.