How a future teacher honored the educators who inspired her
olly Jablonowski wanted to leave a legacy behind when she graduated this June from Johnson City High School in Broome County. Her teachers say she has.
Starting in sixth grade, she drew portraits of every teacher she had in class over the years and gave them to the teachers as gifts. That’s 64 portraits in all.
They’re “fantastic,” said Frank Matonis, Jablonowski’s AP calculus teacher and treasurer of the Johnson City Teachers Association, after he received his portrait.
“As a teacher you work to give students everything you can. When a student does something like this and gives back, it’s really a great feeling,” he said.
Jablonowski began drawing the portraits to mark Teacher Appreciation Day because she wanted to give her teachers something personal. She created a poster with portraits of all the teachers and covered the poster with wrapping paper.
Jablonowski then had the teachers tear off the wrapping piece by piece. Seeing their reactions made the work worthwhile, so she stayed with the initiative through middle school and high school.
“It kind of felt like a tradition,” she said. “I wanted to keep doing it because I felt they deserved the pictures.”
Jablonowski’s love of art began with filling in coloring books at age 7. She transitioned from coloring books to freehand drawing and took private art lessons as well as school classes.
Her teacher portraits evolved over the years as she matured as an artist. She drew some of the portraits with colored pencils, blending the colors together. Other more recent ones are black-and-white drawings. Jablonowski’s goal was to get every detail of a face correct so that the portraits are instantly recognizable.
“She did the impossible. She made me look good,” Matonis said, with a laugh.
Keeping up the tradition wasn’t always easy, Jablonowski acknowledged. She had to fit the work into a busy schedule that included competing on the high school’s cheerleading team and working as an intern in a kindergarten classroom for the Youth Apprenticeship Program.
Mark Buza, president of the Johnson City TA, called Jablonowski’s art project “a great honor” for teachers in the district. “She’s been faithful in doing this,” he added. “It’s a testimony to her character.”
Jablonowski plans to attend Kutztown University in Pennsylvania in the fall, majoring in secondary education.
Her goal is to become a math teacher. That would be carrying on another tradition. Her grandmother taught at Johnson City High School. Her father teaches English at a local Catholic school.
She intends to keep doing art in her free time. She believes the teacher portraits are something invaluable she’s leaving behind after high school graduation. “I felt like I left a legacy,” she said.
— George Basler