Hometown Hawkeye At-A-Glance
Name: Teresa Alesch
Degree: M.A. (Library Sciences) ’00
Occupation: Secondary principal and K-12 curriculum director in the Graettinger-Terril Community School District
Residence: Graettinger, Iowa

Teresa Alesch couldn’t wait to work as an educator.

Graettinger is in Palo Alto County, Iowa, which includes:

131 UI alumni
14 UI-educated teachers and school administrators
3 UI-educated physicians
1 UI-educated dentist
2 UI-educated pharmacists

Discover how the UI impacts the lives ofIowansborder to border, river to river, at outreach.uiowa.edu.

In 2005, the then-26-year-old and her husband, Cody, both Iowa natives, had moved back to northwestern Iowa after living in Nashville, Tenn., realizing there was no place like home.

Alesch landed a job teaching high school English, sociology, world history, psychology, and reading in the Graettinger-Terril Community School District, where she also coached volleyball and track and served as the National Honor Society advisor.

The two started a family, and also enjoyed volunteering at church and helping build a wrestling program. Things were going so well that Alesch decided she was ready for a new challenge and enrolled in the UI Graduate College’s Teacher Librarian Program as a distance learner. She took a combination of online, Polycom, and on-campus course work, and graduated in 2010.

“I wouldn’t have my advanced degree if it weren’t for the UI,” Alesch says. “It was an excellent way to approach education, well balanced and rigorous. The biggest benefit was being able to maintain full-time teaching and coaching responsibilities and remain close to my family.”

Then, life threw her a curveball: in March 2011, Alesch was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer.

“I had not planned on this challenge, but the support from my entire family and community helped me get through this battle,” Alesch says, adding that she was able to continue in her leadership roles at the school while under-going chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, radiation, and anti-estrogen therapy.

Alesch says that she so enjoyed her first distance-education experience that she’s considering obtaining a superintendent endorsement through distance education at the UI College of Education.

Did you know? In 2011-12, there were some 21,000 enrollments in distance-education courses at the University of Iowa. More than three-quarters of those enrollments were by students in the state of Iowa.

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Hometown Hawkeyes are University of Iowa alumni, students, faculty and staff living, working, and making a difference in Iowa. Know a Hometown Hawkeye you'd like to see profiled in Iowa Now? Email your suggestion to us at now@uiowa.edu.