Our SV Preschool promotion will be live streamed at https://www.sveagles.info/live and on our Hudl Fan app.
Marjorie Damitog has been teaching at Southern Valley for four years. She's been teaching in the U.S. for 17 years and more in other countries. She had a few career choices in mind such as agricultural engineering or something in the medical field, but eventually decided on pursuing a career as a teacher. She used her past high school teachers as her motivation to become a teacher herself. As difficult as it is to keep students engaged in the classroom, she tries to have more hands-on projects to keep them interested in lessons. We all appreciate what she has taught and the positivity she's brought to Southern Valley for these past four years.
Jennifer Marquez has been a teacher at Southern Valley for around 15 years. For all of those 15 years, she has taught 5th or 6th grade. Mrs. Marquez’s highlight of teaching is experiencing new things with the children that she teaches. “My favorite part has to be when their faces light up at the State Fair because they’ve never been there. It’s so exciting to show them that there’s more to the world than Beaver City or Oxford,” Mrs. Marquez explains. Before Mrs. Marquez was a teacher, she worked as a case manager for homeless people with a Psychology degree from Fort Hays State University. “I did this [case managing] for about 3 years and realized that it was making me lose empathy for people. I wasn't happy and felt that I wasn't making a difference,” Mrs. Marquez said. She then went to UNK to get her teaching certificate. After getting her teaching certification, she started her job at Southern Valley. She has two daughters, Keira an SV alumni and Hadleigh, a current 8th grader at SV.
2nd Grader Adella Bergquist earned her THIRD blackout for the year in Reading Challenge Bingo! Way to go Adella!
Mrs. Hennessey Lans has been helping out at Southern Valley for 13 years: 3 years teaching 6th grade and 10 years in special education. Along with that, she also coached the SV Cheer Team and the Youth Volleyball Team. Throughout her time at Southern Valley, she has had many fun moments that she will cherish forever. “My best memory would be when I taught 6th grade and we were convinced we had a ghost in our room. We would be doing read-alouds and our light switch would turn off by itself. Nobody believed us besides Mrs. Kristi Bose,” Mrs. Lans explains. Even though she is amazing at what she does, she never thought teaching was something she ever wanted to do. “I quickly figured out that it is what I was meant to do.” She is also a Southern Valley alumn, graduating in 2009. Mrs. Lans has so much love for teaching, and we cannot wait to see how far she continues to go.
Congratulations to senior Brooklyn Santifer, Congressional Art Caucus winner for Nebraska District 3, whose artwork will be displayed in Washington DC this next year! She will meet with Representative Adrian Smith, see her charcoal drawing "Set in Stone" displayed with others from across our nation, and attend a ceremony at the Capitol Building on June 11th.
The golf team competed at the Cozad Invitational on Monday. The strong winds made it extremely difficult for the golfers. They will compete again on Thursday at Bertrand.
Rebecca Jorgensen has been teaching for 27 years and is the 7-12 Art teacher here at SV. Her main inspiration for becoming an art teacher came from her mom and her grandmother because they were both artists. Mrs. J says that she doesn’t have a specific “favorite” project, she just likes seeing the “lightbulb” go off in the students' heads. She also helps direct one act and is the junior class sponsor. Mrs. J enjoyed acting in the plays when she was in high school and she was always asked to help make the set when she became a teacher. Her favorite part of one act is all the inside jokes that the actors have and how much fun they have performing. Mrs. J is married to superintendent, Mr. Jorgenson. They have three children - Brooke and Brianna who are SV alumni, and Bennet who is a current sophomore at SV.
Justin Adams has now been involved with Southern Valley as a teacher and a coach for almost six years. He currently teaches 8th-grade American history, 7th-grade ancient world history, and Google Suites. He has been the head football coach for the last four years, after spending his first two as an assistant. He has also assisted with girls' basketball and track. Mr. Adams’s wife, Amanda, and his two kids, Jackson (10th grade) and Payton (9th grade) are also very involved with SV athletics and activities. Mr. Adams says it can be difficult to balance all the activities his family is involved in, but they try to make it a point of emphasis to spend time together on the off chance that they aren’t busy. His favorite part of what he does is watching kids learn and grow.
Congratulations to SV art student, Camila Hudson, who will be participating in Hastings College's Open Space program this summer! This art immersion program held at the College’s Jackson Dinsdale Art Center in June includes an art scholarship for attending Hastings College.
Ms. Eman has taught high school math for six years, but this is her first year teaching at SV. She was inspired to start teaching when she was working in a daycare teaching preschool kids. It was there that she realized she liked teaching, but not so much teaching preschool kids. She decided high school math was the route for her. Her favorite part about teaching is when a student finally understands something and you can see that light bulb go off in their head. She makes math more engaging for the students by using some technology to keep kids engaged and by making it a little bit more related for her students. Ms. Eman was a 2010 Southern Valley High School graduate.
Lacy Rice is Southern Valley’s second grade teacher who has all of her four children enrolled at SV. Mrs. Rice is a Southern Valley graduate, she has been working for Southern Valley for the last five years. She made this decision because this is where she originated and she feels she gets along with everyone very well. One of her key focuses is making sure her students are doing well in the classroom and at home. She often checks in with her students and wants all of her student to feel welcomed. Thank you, Mrs. Rice for your commitment to our school.
Order of events for the Southern Valley JH Track meet to be hold tomorrow, Monday, May 12.
Jordyn DeVries has been working at Southern Valley for two years as a kindergarten teacher. Her favorite part about teaching is watching students’ growth through the beginning of the year to the end of the school year. She also likes that kindergarteners are just fun. Mrs. DeVries is thankful to have had very kind and supportive co-workers while at SV. She will be continuing her journey as an educator at Holdrege Elementary School next fall. She is married to her husband, Calvin, and she has a son named Bennett who just turned one.
Here is what is happening at Southern Valley this week. Please note that Field Day is on Friday this week after it was postponed last week. Have a great week SV Nation!!
Mrs. Stalder is the elementary music teacher and high school choir teacher. She has worked at Southern Valley for 11 years and went to Kansas State for band and choir in college. Mrs. Stalder says the most important skills for students to develop when it comes to singing are being confident, being able to sing out, and deciphering between different styles of music. She motivates students through various kinds of music from educational to popular songs. She also uses different singing and listening activities along with some entertaining games to keep students engaged in lessons and practices. One of her most memorable performances was last year's concert on fine arts night, or the Disney-themed concert she did with the elementary students. We're all grateful for the hard work and dedication of Mrs. Stalder each year.
Tina Brown is both a resource teacher and the unified bowling coach at Southern Valley. She also helps out with the kids club after school every Wednesday night. The main factors that make her job enjoyable include the kids, her coworkers, and the administration. Even though she has been here for 28 years, she did not always want to work in a school system. She wanted to be a vet, but eventually changed her mind, leading her to do what she does now. She did incorporate animals into her current job, as her room is filled with all sorts of cool different pets. Mrs. Brown is married to Todd Brown who serves on the Southern Valley school board. The couple have two sons who have both graduated from Southern Valley.
Southern Valley held their commencement exercises today to celebrate the Class of 2025. We want to extend our best wishes to these 28 students as they are now officially alumni of Southern Valley Schools. Go do great things!!
Mrs. Bose is one of the junior high/high school math teachers at Southern Valley. She has taught at Southern Valley for 20 years and had taught in Orleans for 9 years before the schools consolidated. Her favorite part of being a teacher is watching the kids learn, seeing their reactions, and having them understand what she teaches. She sees her teaching style as structured and disciplinary, in her own words, very black and white. “That's why I like math because there's a right answer. There's no gray area.” In order to foster a positive and inclusive learning environment in her classroom, Mrs. Bose allows students to communicate with each other during practice time and makes sure that they feel comfortable with giving wrong answers. Mrs. Bose became a teacher because she wanted to be a coach, but quickly realized that teaching was just as fun as coaching for her. She also has a daughter, Tori Bose, who attends Southern Valley as a junior. Mrs. Bose is a wonderful math teacher, and we are all grateful for what she's managed to teach us in these past 20 years.
Southern Valley Schools Senior Graduation 2025 is live streamed at https://www.sveagles.info/live and on our Hudl fan app.