Colorful Homecoming

For artist Robt Seda-Schreiber, leaving California beaches for an eighth-grade classroom in New Jersey was an act of love… and a no-brainer.

Photos by Tamika Diaz

Teacher and artist Robt Seda-Schreiber spends his days encouraging students to express themselves. At Melvin H. Kreps Middle School in East Windsor, New Jersey, his lessons line the hallways.

Colorful 10-by-6-foot murals painted by Seda-Schreiber's eighth-grade students cover many of the walls.

"The students have positively influenced their school," he says. "They've had an incredible response to their work. Hundreds of community members, including all four area mayors, have come to see it. It's been a wonderful experience, and we don't plan to stop until every inch of the school is covered!"    

Seda-Schreiber never thought he'd be leaving a permanent mark on the school he once attended. "I love being back in my hometown. I have a lot of empathy for my students because I grew up here. It gives us an instant rapport."

Although he remembers drawing constantly as a child, it was his middle school art teacher who got him to take art seriously.

"She directed that energy I had," he says. "That's what art is about. It's not so much about natural talent. It's about passion." Seda-Schreiber's passion for teaching earned him the honor of being named East Windsor Regional School District's 2004 Teacher of the Year.

 In addition to teaching art, Seda-Schreiber is active in the drama department and directed a series of one-act plays that won a Best Production award in a recent Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Secondary School Drama Festival. He also finds time to exhibit his own work in the community, winning numerous awards.

Ten years ago, Seda-Schreiber was teaching art to middle and high school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as part of a clinical study at the University of California at Berkeley when he got a call from his former art teacher about an opening at Kreps.

"I had a great life and a job I loved. I was living right off the beach," he says. "But I didn't hesitate for a second. I felt like I had to teach, to give back to a community that's given me so much."

—Desda Moss

Cycles of Love

The death of her child forced Pennsylvania science teacher Elizabeth Sterling to redefine hope; now she's helping other kids survive cancer.

Elizabeth Sterling's life changed forever when she lost her son, Bennett, to brain cancer when he was just 18 months old.

The lessons she learned from his short life inspired Sterling to make a 3,200-mile cross-country bicycle journey last October as part of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope.

"I learned from my experience with my son that there are two types of hope: the kind you have when you hope things turn out the way you want them to, and the kind that helps you accept that no matter how things turn out, something good can come of it."

A high school biology and environmental studies teacher in the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, school district, Sterling was one of 20 cyclists selected from nearly 1,200 applicants for the national team. The ride was organized to raise awareness about the importance of cancer clinical trials. Cancer survivor and six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong joined the group for selected segments of the weeklong race.

"It was an incredible honor," says Sterling. "The other riders were such inspiring people. The thing we all had in common was our connection to clinical trials."

 Bennett was only four months old when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Like 40 percent of the children with cancer, he took part in clinical trials during his treatment.

One thing that kept Sterling going in her cross-country trek was having the names of 48 children emblazoned on her riding jersey. Sterling calls them her "cancer angels and cancer warriors" because some were battling the disease and others succumbed.

"Anytime I felt sorry for myself I thought of those kids," she says.

—D.M.

Reclaiming Hope

For 32 years, Helen Holloway put all her heart and energy into teaching social studies to middle schoolers. It didn't go unnoticed.

The Board of Trustees of the University of Central Arkansas recently endowed a $100,000 scholarship in Holloway's name to honor her commitment to education.

It was a fitting tribute to an educator who never stopped giving to the residents of De Valls Bluff, Arkansas, once she left the classroom. Eight years ago, Holloway founded her own after-school tutoring program at a local church, where she tutors between 15 and 22 students a year in language arts and social studies.

"The program used to be just me and the kids, but we're expanding," says Holloway. Just last year, she enlisted two other tutors, including her husband, Don, a former math teacher.

If that wasn't enough, Holloway also logs many hours volunteering at the Prairie County Hope Chest, which provides clothing and transportation to help De Valls Bluff residents moving from welfare to work. And she's the president of the Prairie County Retired Teachers Association, as well as a member of the Arkansas Education Association-Retired Advisory Board.

So does she ever plan to take time off for herself? "Absolutely," she insists. "I might use that extra time to do some traveling."

But she has no plans to give up her volunteering.

"I love it too much," Holloway says. "My father taught me to leave the world a better place than I found it, and I've believed that all my life."

—Matt Simon

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