WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE: Donna Forsyth loves being a teacher

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

If not for a family Christmas tradition, Donna Forsyth might be a nurse somewhere right now, instead of a teacher in Charles City.

“I really thought I wanted to be a nurse,” Forsyth said. “I loved it.”

Forsyth teaches biology and life sciences at Charles City High School and is also the Iowa Big North facilitator for Charles City students. In high school at Osage, however, she received her CNA through a school-to-work program her junior year. She thought she was going to attend nursing school — but then she had to work on Christmas Day.

“In health care, you have to be willing to work 24/7, and my family always celebrated on Christmas morning. It was tradition,” she said. “I think that was the time when I thought, ‘I really love this, but I don’t know if I want to work on holidays.’”

Then, her freshman year in college, Forsyth got the opportunity to spend some time in an elementary classroom, and she was hooked.

“I walked out of there having such a great time every single day. I realized I loved education. I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “I think I would’ve really loved being in health care, and teaching science is kind of the best of both worlds.”

Forsyth went to what was then Waldorf Junior College, then transferred to UNI, where she studied physical education, health and science. Upon graduating from UNI, her first teaching job was in 1985 in Tipton, then she taught in the Allison-Bristow school district for five years before starting in Charles City in 1992.

“It’s just been an amazing educational opportunity,” Forsyth said. “All three districts were amazing.”

At Charles City, she first taught environmental science and biology, and health and physical education.

“I actually enjoyed all of those areas, but even though I love physical education, I decided to focus more in the science area,” she said.

Through that time the district introduced a lot of new science courses, including one called “introduction into health professions.” In the late 90s, it was a class offered concurrently with North Iowa Area Community College.

“They took it out of their course book so we weren’t able to offer it any more, but the community loved the class, so we just expanded it and called it ‘exploring science careers,’” Forsyth said.

Through the class, students are able to get a look at places in the community like Cambrex and Zoetis and explore careers not just in health care, but also in science.

“It opened up more opportunities for more students through that class,” Forsyth said. “They could get an idea of what they may want to go into after graduation.”

That class is still going on today. Students are able to get out and job-shadow, and have one-on-one conversations with local people working in the science field. Forsyth agreed that this class was the root of what eventually became Iowa Big North.

“I’ve been in education a long time, and Iowa Big North is by far the most amazing educational opportunity I’ve ever been involved in,” she said.

Iowa Big North is a consortium of seven school districts in the area. Forsyth said Iowa Big North takes a community problem with a real community member, attaches it to a group of students who are passionate about solving that problem, and then students work together across district lines to try to solve it.

Forsyth said that as Iowa Big North facilitators, teachers “have to become masters at asking questions.”

“As an educator, I think we all look at it as wanting what’s best for our students,” she said. “As long as you’re student-centered, and you’re always putting the students first and giving them the opportunity to be empowered, it’s a win-win situation for everybody.”

Forsyth has four adult children, and two of them are educators and coaches. One is a nurse and one is currently a junior in college. She tells her children, as well as her students, to “find something that you love to do.”

“I fully believe in that, because I think that we’re all just so much happier when we love what we do,” she said. “Passion is so important — I say that a lot, because I fully believe it.”

She said she sees that kind of passion throughout the Charles City School District, in her students, her fellow teachers, the administration and community.

“I’m thrilled that my children went to school here,” Forsyth said. “All four have been very prepared for college, and prepared for life after college.”

She has no regrets about changing her mind about her career path that Christmas morning her junior year, the career path that ultimately led her to Charles City.

“I love Charles City. I’m so glad that this is where I ended up,” Forsyth said. “I tell kids all the time, the education in Charles City is second to none. We try to tailor our curriculum as much as we can for kids.”

Forsyth said she believes that the positive culture is not just instilled in the school district itself, but in the community in general.

“Charles City as a whole — what a beautiful community we live in,” she said. “The number of people who are positive about our community, and are looking for ways to make it even better, I really appreciate those people. They work so hard, sometimes against quite a few obstacles, and yet they continue to push through and persevere.”