Reflections Magazine Issue #74 - Spring 2011 | Page 20

Alumni Feature

Innovative Educators

Jason Finley ’03

T.C. Roekle ’68

Jason Sanderson ’92

Glen Taylor ’95

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

— Henry Brooks Adams, American Historian, Journalist and Novelist

Siena Heights University goes back to its earliest origins as an institution that educates teachers.
From its founding in 1919 as St. Joseph College until present day, Siena Heights has carved out
a distinguished reputation as a place future teachers go to learn and prepare for their chosen
vocations. The proof of that legacy is in our graduates, a few of whom are profiled in this issue
of Reflections as being innovators who have made a lasting impact on their students.

Finding His Place
Career Change Has Jason Finley ’03
Teaching Award-Winning Program
By Doug Goodnough

Jason Finley ’03 doesn’t consider himself to be
a great educator. “I mumble often, go off topic
when I speak to groups, I don’t write well and
hate PowerPoint,” said the 39-year-old teacher at
Otter Valley Union High School in Rutland, Vt.
However, what Finley does do well is provide
his students opportunities for self-discovery and
finding their own place and purpose in life. As
a “place-based” educator, Finley helps students
connect subjects like reading, science and math
to actual events and places. Using a program he
created called External Learning Opportunities,
he designs students’ action research projects,
helps facilitate exploration of an area of interest,
aligns those interests to content standards and
then designs a summative assessment through
a service-learning project.

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Reflection