Jessica Swonger doesn’t like the limelight, but her work in the classroom makes her a star.
Swonger is one of three teachers honored in the fourth annual Kiwanis Inspirational Educator Award
program.
She was honored at Thursday’s Kiwanis meeting; the other two winners are Bruce Corrigan and Jenny Dever,
who will be honored in the next two weeks.
Kiwanis devotes February to educators in Bowling Green City Schools.
Swonger was peer selected by her colleagues for her exceptional impact on her students as well as her
fellow teachers.
She said she was overwhelmed and humbled by the recognition. “It is a strange feeling being recognized.”
Each day becomes brighter when she sees the 500 smiling faces that walk through her art room door at
Conneaut Elementary.
Now in her fourth year at Conneaut, she said she picked becoming a teacher because she “is drawn to
helping others.” No pun intended.
Her students “really are what drives me every day,” she said. “They’re my little rock stars.”
She challenges them on a daily basis, and appreciates their smiling faces and goofy laughs.
When she introduced clay to her kindergarten class, the response ranged from “it’s disgusting” to “it’s
awesome.”
“If I weren’t an educator I would not have these moments,” she told Kiwanians. She lives for the ooh and
ah moments, “the light bulb moments” she called them.
Swonger is a graduate of the University of Akron where she earned a bachelor of arts in visual arts
education. She began her teaching career with the Akron Area YMCA as a preschool teacher and K-5
after-school tutor. Before BGCS, she was a high school art teacher at Cuyahoga Falls High School in
Cuyahoga Falls.
Her students may not be the most talented on the planet, “but I’m going to tell them they are.”
Is art class all rainbows and butterflies? No, she said.
They analyze art on a daily basis, explore different cultures through art, and she also introduces a lot
of math into her class.
“We’re going to take what you know and use that knowledge,” she tells her students when incorporating
other study areas.
She calls her students her “smarty artys.”
She also plays music as some artists, like Jackson Pollock, did while constructing his work.
She often hangs her students’ artwork on the halls at Conneaut.
“There is nothing better than witnessing students standing in front of their artwork,” she said.
She also hangs their work downtown for the Black Swamp Arts Festival, Winterfest and Art Walk.
“I want them to feel like they are succeeding and that they can succeed.”
She gets stressed out when she has to select pieces for competition, such as picking five to eight pieces
from among 500. She spreads them throughout her living room floor to contemplate them.
“It’s a great idea,” Bowling Green City Schools Superintendent Francis Scruci said about the program,
especially recognizing the hard work that teachers do.
The awards have been supported by Bowling Green PTOs, the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Bowling Green,
The Copy Shop, and the school district. Each honoree receives a monetary award and is recognized with a
plaque on permanent display in children’s library of the Wood County District Public Library.
