REPORTER: How did your master’s degree in American studies help you in your current position?
TESCHNER: With our focus on learning and higher education, I spent lots of my time saying to students and staff at The Care Center that college was important. And at one point, I had the epiphany: “Why do I think that I’m done learning?” So at the age of 47, I went back to school in the American studies graduate program at Trinity. It was a great experiential moment to be a student again, and bringing that visceral information back to work every day was very powerful. The night of my first class, I can remember feeling completely terrified to walk into the classroom. Returning to school brought a sense of humility, fear, and self-doubt—the very things that the students at The Care Center experience every day. But it also brought an exhilaration and energy that you can maybe only get when you are learning new things. I saw very clearly what solid quality education looks and feels like. The faculty was truly interested in my intellectual inquiry, and the staff did their part to make sure that I succeeded academically. It set an example for what should happen in every educational setting.

REPORTER: The Center recently received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, and you were recognized at a White House ceremony with First Lady Michelle Obama. What was the experience like?
TESCHNER: It was elegant, gratifying, and awesome. Essentially this the highest honor a program like ours can receive. And we were one of 12 programs to be recognized for our vision and excellence. We went to the White House and met with the First Lady, who gave us the award. Two students from The Care Center came with me, one was asked to read one of her poems during the ceremony. It was very a powerful, proud moment to be in a room with national leaders in the arts and humanities and have a Care Center student be the only youth voice at the podium.

REPORTER: What is the most rewarding part of your work?
TESCHNER: The fun is in watching young women who are initially resistant to school move from “I don’t understand why you’re asking me to do this,” to a position of taking joy from learning. This evolution happens on a fairly regular basis. It doesn’t always happen in the classroom. We have a rowing program, and for some people it happens on the river. For others it’s in the photography class we offer. Often it happens through more experiential exercises where a student will have that spark ignite, and they become reconnected with themselves as learners.

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