FACES AND PLACES: Chicago's "Golden Apple" (08/22/04)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

It's not easy being an art teacher in America's high schools. Art classes for many kids is a joke, something to blow off.

Being an art teacher is hard enough, but being an art teacher in an inner city school is only for the bold and the brave.

And that's exactly what Elena Diadenko-Hunter is: bold, brave and more. Elena teaches art at Roberto Clemente High School, an inner-city school not far from Chicago's Ukrainian Village. Although some 90 percent of her students are living at poverty level or below, her classes are anything but a joke. They're fun, exciting, creative, serious, and productive, all at the same time.

Elena is not just good at what she does, she's outstanding; so much so that she earned the coveted "Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching," one of only ten Chicago teachers (681 were nominated) to be so honored in 2004.

Lesia and I just happened to be watching our public TV channel on May 31 when the Apple Award presentations came on. There were video clips of each honoree in the classroom, as well as comments by students and colleagues. The surname Diadenko sounded Ukrainian but we weren't sure until Elena was introduced as a recent immigrant from Ukraine and began to speak.

She thanked her husband Dave and her family for their support. Elena also thanked her students. "I know your lives are difficult but you can graduate and go to college. ... Love art because it can change your life," she told them. Elena had a message for teachers as well: "Mother Teresa said children are hungry, not for food but for love ... let's continue to give that love to all our students."

In conclusion, Elena mentioned her Ukrainian background and offered some encouragement for new immigrants. "I came to this country twelve years ago without English, money or family," she said, "and look at me now. If I can succeed, so can you."

Lesia and I looked at each other. Wow! This is one person we need to meet, we decided. We tracked her down and eventually visited Elena at her home on Chicago's northwest side. There was art work everywhere, even on the ceiling. We met Dave as he was leaving for work. As Elena recounted her life story, we enjoyed the warm Ukrainian hospitality, especially the holubchi and cake her mother had prepared.

Elena Diadenko-Hunter was born in Poltava, Ukraine, and decided to become an artist at the age of three. In Ukraine she attended Mykola Gogol Ceramic College in Mirohorod and later the Lviv State Institute of Applied and Decorative Art where she received a bachelors degree. By this time, she was selling some of her art work in small art galleries and on the street.

After emigrating to Chicago in 1992, she was taken in by a Ukrainian family and spent time working in their ceramic business. Later, she found various employment - fabric designer, baby-sitter, restaurant worker, house maid.

Elena also worked for a time as a Ukrainian language and history teacher in one of our Saturday schools. "I loved the job, and even though it was practically a volunteer job, it was what I looked forward to most," she told one reporter. She had found her calling. Teaching art, she decided, was the perfect profession because it combined her two great loves. She enrolled in Chicago's Columbia College where she earned two masters degrees, an M.A. and a M.A.T. (Master of Arts in Teaching).

Finding a teaching position in art education was not easy. She sent out 160 resumes and was finally hired in 1997 by Roberto Clemente Principal Irene DaMota who grew up in Argentina and was part Ukrainian. Today, Elena is chairperson of the school's art department.

Elena learned of her award when Illinois Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn and a group of local reporters marched into her classroom and made the surprise announcement. Elena cried, her students cheered.

The future is bright for Elena. Her award included a check for $2,500 and an Apple computer. Presently she is on a six month tuition-free, sabbatical at Northwestern University where she is studying with Professor Ed Pesce, a renown local artist. She plans to return to Roberto Clemente High School next year, "refreshed and enthused," she said.

"And someday," she told us, "I will spend time at the Hermitage Art Museum in St. Petersburg to see how much art was stolen from Ukraine by the Russians."

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