Civic Memorial Educator Honored as Madison County's New CTE Teacher of the Year

BETHALTO - Angie Parish has been chosen as a Madison County New CTE Teacher of the Year.

Parish, who teaches health, PE and driver’s ed at Civic Memorial High School in the Bethalto Community Unit School District #8, recently started a Medical Occupations class to train students on basic medical skills. Parish has taught for over 30 years, but she just recently became a CTE teacher, and she has enjoyed every minute of it.

“This has really reignited a whole flame,” Parish said. “I come to school excited. I’m here early, I stay late, I come in on weekends, I come in on holidays, I’m here all summer. It’s just fun. It’s fun again to teach.”

Parish has organized her classroom to look like a hospital room, with a hospital bed and plenty of medical supplies for the students to practice with. She asks the community to donate any excess medical supplies they may have.

In addition to teaching medical skills in the classroom, Parish has created opportunities for her students to push out to St. Anthony’s Hospital and Anderson Hospital so they can shadow medical professionals. Students have witnessed surgeries, births and more procedures as a result.

Many of the students have used the Medical Occupations class as a jumping-off point. Isabella Brousseau plans to attend nursing school, while Brett Schoen has been shadowing EMTs in his own time with plans to eventually become a paramedic. Kaiden Forsythe has begun working at Elias, Kallal & Schaaf Funeral Home and will be studying mortuary science in Chicago come fall.

Parish is excited to see all her students succeed. Knowing that her class helped them along the way has been deeply fulfilling.

“It gives me goosebumps, it really does,” Parish said.

Known as “Ms. P” in the classroom, Parish’s students appreciate the effort she has put into their education. Gabby Beasley considers Parish “a very good person to learn from,” while Brousseau added that Parish “never fails” to coordinate shadowing opportunities that are uniquely suited to each student’s interests.

“I think Ms. P is a very hard-working woman,” Mia Suarez said. “She’s definitely dedicated to her job. She’s also very dedicated to every single one of us and other people that she doesn’t even know.”

This dedication is why Jerilyn Hawkins, Bethalto’s CTE coordinator, nominated her for Madison County’s New CTE Teacher of the Year recognition. Hawkins commended Parish for her work to conceptualize and start the Medical Occupations class, noting that other high schools have begun to model their programs based on Parish’s class. She added that Parish is deeply devoted to the students.

“The kids love her. She really, really cares about them, and I think kids know that. They feel that,” Hawkins explained. “She didn’t have to do this, right? But she loved it. She wanted to do it. And I think that speaks highly of her that she works so hard to provide this opportunity for kids even though she’s really at the end of her career…The whole thing about being a teacher is that you really want to help kids and see them succeed and want to provide them with the experiences that they need.”

Parish is pleased to know her Medical Occupations class has inspired so many students, and she has big plans for the class going forward. Next year, she’ll welcome even more students into her classroom, as Medical Occupations is now one of the most popular classes offered at Civic Memorial.

Though retirement is on the horizon, Parish doesn’t plan to step away anytime soon. She is excited to continue working with students to help them pursue their passion in the medical field.

“After 32 years, that’s usually when you can get kind of tired and looking toward retirement,” she said. “I’m looking toward coming out of retirement to come back to teach this class.”

Congratulations to Angie Parish for the New CTE Teacher of the Year in Madison County recognition.

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