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I think that there's no doubt
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that I have been inspired, most of all
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by my parents, particularly my mother;
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and I don't mean that just in the traditional ways that children are
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inspired by parents
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but both of my parents were
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role models for lifelong learning.
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So I graduated from high school a year early. I went to Northern Illinois
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University; lived in a dormitory;
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did that traditional freshman and college thing.
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And at the conclusion of the Spring semester, I got called in to the dean's
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office and they said
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Ted going to class is part of going to college;
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and since you didn't do much of that this year,
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we don't need any more beer majors at Northern Illinois University. Why don't
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you take some time off and think about whether college is really for you?
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And so I'd I didn't get invited back; and I didn't belong there anyway.
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And so I went back home.
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I lived in Aurora and and got the kinds of jobs that high school graduates
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got; and decided after three or four years of that,
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that I really did need to go to college. And I started at
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College DuPage, the community college there in the
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western suburbs; and it changed my life.
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And the reason that it changed my life
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was not because it put me on a very strong career
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trajectory by going to college, but I had the best
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teachers at COD that I ever had in my entire
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educational career; and I mean that very sincerely.
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Waubonsee Community College was the community college in town. It was just--
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--their downtown campus was just a few blocks from where I worked.
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I thought you know maybe there's something over there I can do at night,
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some program or learn a new skill and so
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I what went into the foyer, and they had a big rack with all the pamphlets on
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there of all the different programs they had, and I was looking there.
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And my next door neighbor's sister came around the corner
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of the hall, and she said, "Ted Raspiller, what are you doing here?" And I said, "Well hey, Sue.
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I'm looking for,
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you know, just something to do at night, maybe I'll take a class." I forget what
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pamphlet I had my hand, but we we're kinda chuckling about
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that be more for enjoyment than a career field.
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And she says, "Have you ever thought about teaching?" And I said,
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"You know, I've thought about teaching, but I'm not so sure.
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(You know, here I am from the family of teachers, right.) She said,
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"No, I'm serious. I'm teaching. That's why I'm here. I teach in the
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GED, the high school completion program
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two nights a week, and we're always looking for
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instructors, particularly male instructors. So I called her back
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later that week. And I went in, talked to the coordinator of the program, her boss.
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And she said, "We'd love to have you a couple nights a week."
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And so I was
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(this is probably three or four weeks into it.) I was driving home
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got it to the first stoplight, and I thought, "You know,
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if Jose and I could have just had 15 more minutes
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he would have understood multiplying fractions
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and been ready to start Algebra next week."
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And that was what was on my mind as I was driving home that night. And I drove down to
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the next stoplight,
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and I thought, "Ted Raspiller, you've never in your life
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wished you could have spent 15 more minutes at work."
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So I started--I dwelled on that, and I got to thinking
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because it's not work. It's a passion. It's something that I really enjoy.
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I don't want to
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be thought of as a place that we only go to
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on our path to a four-year school or we only go to
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when we're trying to get skilled or re-skilled to enter or re-enter the
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workplace.
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I want to see John Tyler as that partner
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for all of the people that we serve--
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--all of our constituents throughout their career.
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It's not just enough to get them in the door. It's not just enough to get them in
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the door and get them through one program.
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It's that lifelong learning partner. If there's anything that I can leave
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at John Tyler, I hope its
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thats same excitement in everybody that works here,
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everybody that attends here and everybody in the communities that we
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serve
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that sees that same value in building and diversity,
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building and experiences and continuing to be better
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and more effective at what they do whether where that's at work
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or at home raising their families, or in learning,
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that's the greatest legacy that I could leave.