Making the “high school decision” can be one of the most stressful times of any kid’s life. According to Samantha Szurkowski (‘14), having a parent that is a teacher does not mean the choice is nonexistent. Sammy’s mother has been a teacher at Padua Academy for over five years now. “She was really supportive of my decision process,” Sammy says, “I was choosing between Padua [which doubled as the work place of her mother] and the public school in my area.” Her mom explained to her that no matter what, she would be her mom, but if she came to Padua she would have to treat her like a teacher as well. She was not planning on being intrusive though, and she even offered to not be in attendance at any school functions that Sammy wanted to be private with her friends. Sammy chose Padua, and has spent the last four years of her life being proud to call herself a panda.

From the outside, it seems like a child having her mother at school with her could be weird, but Sammy and her mom play it cool. “I don’t call her mom in school. Sometimes I will see her in the hallways and jokingly mock the other students and say ‘hey Ms. S,’ I do enjoy seeing her, though.” Mrs. Szurkowski attended Widener University to receive her mechanical engineering degree, and then later went back to school for her teaching certificate. She works in the math department at Padua and teaches an engineering class. “I used to like math … until it got hard,” says Sammy. She jokes about the difficulty of math, but Sammy has plans to attend Penn State University next year and work towards a chemical engineering degree.