Southwestern College graduate Crystal Abasolo has accepted the KAGAN trainer position at Wichita East High School and will begin in August.
Her journey has required quality instruction along with her own resiliency and focus. 

At first, she felt the business world was her calling.  She earned bachelor degrees from Southwestern College in human resources and business quality management.  While attaining her degrees, Abasolo held a job at Meritrust as a sales/investment assistant. 

In 2000, Abasolo felt the desire to go into teaching and applied with USD 259 Wichita as a substitute teacher and was hired almost immediately.  Eventually she became the leadership instructor at Brooks Middle School.  The position lasted five years although she was still classified as a long term substitute.

In 2005, Abasolo decided to earn a teaching certificate from Southwestern College Professional Studies in Wichita.  The guidance she received proved to be invaluable. 

“I chose Southwestern College Professional Studies for my education degree because I had received my bachelor’s from SC and had a very good experience while going to school,” Abasolo says. “When I first started the program, Vicki Henderson (faculty and licensure assistant) was a huge help in guiding me in the direction that I needed to go with my degree.  We also discussed the options of transition to teaching, which is a great option for people who cannot do student teaching because of the money issue.  I chose to go through the program and do student teaching.”

When the time came to student teach, Abasolo was quite comfortable at Brooks Middle School and had every intention of teaching there.  Rich Bicker, coordinator of elementary education and director of student teaching, guided Abasolo a different direction.

“I pleaded with Mr. Bicker to allow me to do my student teaching at Brooks Middle School because I didn’t want to leave my job for a semester,” Abasolo recalls.  “Mr. Bicker stated that I had to find a job somewhere other than where I was teaching.  In fact, he wanted me to get out of Wichita so I could get a totally different teaching experience.  Mr. Bicker was great for my personality because he didn’t allow me to make the decisions or be ‘in-charge,’ he told me what I was going to do and what I couldn’t do and was a mentor to me.”

Abasolo remained in Wichita but at Wichita Heights High School. 

Just one month into her student teaching, she interviewed for a position at Wichita East High School and was ultimately offered a job as business and practical law instructor. 

“I accepted and was going to start August 2007.  At the end of my student teaching, I had to take the Business PRAXIS to finally get my license,” Abasolo says.  “During this process I got to know Dr. David Hofmeister (education division chairperson at SC).  The first time that I took the test I didn’t pass.  Dr. Hofmeister provided me with a lot of support and encouragement to keep trying.  In August of ’07 I started teaching at East.  Dr. Hofmeister has still continued to keep in touch with me and still provides encouragement.”

In August, Abasolo will begin as the KAGAN instructor as well as teaching an AVID class.  AVID stands for Advancement via Individual Determination. The mission of AVID is to ensure that all students:
• will succeed in rigorous curriculum,
• will complete a college preparatory path,
• will enter mainstream activities of the school,
• will increase their enrollment in four-year colleges, and
• will become educated, responsible participants and leaders in a democratic society.

According to Abasolo, AVID’s systematic approach is designed to support students and educators as they increase school and district learning and performance. 

“There is no way that I would be where I am at today had it not been for the support  from the staff  at Southwestern College,” Abasolo says, “specifically Rich, Dave, and Vicki.  All three of these people played, and continue to play a huge part in the teacher education program because of their roles.  Vicki was amazing in trying to help me with my transcript and all the hours that I needed to have to complete my degree.  I also thought that there was a very easy and smooth transition to the teaching program because I did my other degrees at SC in business.  I have had such a great experience with Southwestern that I plan to get my MBA through them within the next two years.”