Amanda Fieramosca is a 2018 Homewood-Flossmoor High School alumna, an H-F teachers’ union scholarship winner and now a full-time H-F faculty member.
“Teaching is a hard profession, and I know there are a lot of teachers who are leaving the field,” the first-year teacher said. “Some people are very hesitant to enter the field. What I would tell people who are interested in education is that although it is hard, it is 100% worth it because you get to directly make an impact on hundreds of kids and influence them in a positive way and provide them with an environment where they learn and drive. I would encourage it 100%.”
Fieramosca taught economics in summer school and was offered a full-time position in the social studies department. Today she’s teaching five sections of economics to Advanced Placement and honors students.
“It’s kind of crazy I’m teaching AP econ and my AP econ teacher (Nick Anello) is the one who hired me,” she said, but she’s happy to be back at H-F. “I thought it would feel weird but it feels like time hasn’t passed. A lot of what I used to know about H-F is still the same.
“My colleagues used to be my teachers and now their my co-workers. I guess that has been the most difficult calling them by their first names rather than their last names, but overall it’s felt nice coming back because everything is so familiar.”
Teacher John Schmidt was a big influence on her decision. Fieramosca said she knew she wanted to go into teaching, but Schmidt’s World History course helped her make a decision on the direction.
“I took World History with Mr. Schmidt, I knew I wanted to teach history and after that I started taking a lot of social science classes here and I realized that I didn’t just like history but I liked all of the social sciences,” she said.
Schmidt also was the teacher who gave Fiermosca the application for a scholarship offered by Homewood-Flossmoor Education Organization. The HFEO is the teachers’ union representing more than 200 teachers and instructional assistants. The scholarship is funded by donations from current and former union members.
Fieramosca used the $500 scholarship for tuition at St. Xavier University in Chicago. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social science and secondary education in May 2022, but her college career took a hit because of the pandemic.
“The first two years were general ed classes and once you become a junior/senior you’re supposed to focus on education classes, but my sophomore year and all of my junior year we were on lockdown and we just started getting out of lockdown my senior year, “ she said, “so I didn’t have any practice teaching before I started student teaching.
“The semester before I started student teaching, I took a methods class and the prof was telling us everything we needed to do to teach and I was shocked.
“I made a lesson plan or two for my classes. Wait, teachers have to make a lesson plan every day for multiple classes? I didn’t have a clue of how much went into it.
“If it wasn’t for the pandemic I feel I would have been better prepared, but once I did start student teaching I figured it out. It was hard but it was definitely helpful. If it wasn’t for that experience I wouldn’t be the teacher that I am today. I learned to adapt and figure it out.”
These days Fieramosca is at H-F by 7 a.m. preparing for her 7:30 a.m. class. She is making those lesson plans every day and knows she can call on any of the H-F teachers in her department for help.
“I have been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received here. It’s incredible. My mentor teacher Ted Venegas is so helpful. We meet on a regular basis. The school has a whole team in place that helps new teachers. I’ve been blown away by all the help I receive. It’s been great,” she said.
Math teacher Dana Noble, president of HFEO, organized the scholarship about eight years ago. It started small, with just three scholarships, but it’s built over time. One year it gave 10 scholarships. The amount and the number of awards varies depending on donations from current and former H-F staff and outside donations. HFEO has also accepted donations from teachers’ unions at Flossmoor District 161 and Homewood District 153.
HFEO offers three categories of scholarship: service, future teacher and the outstanding senior award. That winner is nominated by teachers. Now HFEO is adding aid for the future teacher award winners providing a $300 stipend when they start student teaching.
“We’re going to continue building the program a little bit at a time. It’s been a fantastic journey we’re on,” Noble said, noting HFEO members are excited to have a scholarship winner joining their ranks.