Rosemary Pennington | Sept. 28, 2007
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| Photo by Rosemary Pennington |
| Freshman Kolby Harrell won the Kate Comiskey Memorial Scholarship, established in memory of the daughter of Interim Director of Student Media Nancy Comiskey. |
And when Harrell is talking about his ninth grade English teacher, the late Kate Comiskey, that light is especially bright.
"She was energetic, always smiling," Harrell explained. “She was always happy. It was like she wanted to be a friend as much as she wanted to be a teacher.”
As the winner of the Kate Comiskey Memorial Scholarship, the Indian Creek High School alumnus is honoring the memory of one of his favorite teachers. Not only did he choose to attend at her alma mater, but he is studying in the program where Comiskey’s mother is guiding her own students.
Kate Comiskey, daughter of Interim Director of Student Media Nancy Comiskey, was teaching at Indian Creek High School near Trafalgar when she was killed in a car accident three years ago. She was on her way to school one early November morning when a driver who was high at the time crossed into her path.
The loss was more than heartbreaking for her family, but they knew they wanted to find a way to honor her memory. Nancy Comiskey said they knew whatever they chose, it would have to be tied to that school.
“We knew how much she loved those kids at that school,” Comiskey said. “She talked about them all the time. We knew she would want us to do something to help them out.”
And so the family set up the scholarship, a $2,000 award given to a graduating Indian Creek senior headed to college. Last year, Kolby Harrell won.
Beyond her talents as a teacher, Harrell said Kate Comiskey had a way of charming students; if she called you “dollface” it was something to be proud of.
Comiskey’s enthusiasm was not lost on the rest of the faculty at Indian Creek High School near Trafalgar. Brian Boehnlein’s class was next to Comiskey’s and he shares Harrell’s memories.
“Kate rarely sat at her desk,” Boehnlein said in an e-mail interview. “She was constantly pacing in front of the class, be it reading to them or instructing. I would see a symbiotic relationship of energy. Kate fed off student energy and gave it back to them three fold.”
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“In the end, Kate’s spark,” Boehnlein said, “and her spirit.”
It’s the memory of that spirit that causes Nancy Comiskey to laugh when talking about her daughter.
“Here she was,” Comiskey said, “this 6-foot-tall, high-heel wearing vegetarian teaching at this rural Indiana school. I don’t think those kids knew what to think of her at first.”
Harrell thought a lot of her, so much that, as a sophomore, he was Kate Comiskey’s teacher’s assistant. She had just returned from a trip to Japan and, the week she died, Harrell had seen her every day.
“She was giving her class a piece of Japanese candy,” Harrell said, “and I would stop in to get candy. I’ll never forget the morning I stopped in to see her and she wasn’t there.”
He was happy to find out he won Kate’s scholarship, especially since she was an IU alumna in education and he had chosen IU himself. Nancy Comiskey said she’s delighted to have Harrell at IU and she’s sure her daughter would be as well.
“Kolby seems like such a positive young man,” Comiskey said. “He has such a positive outlook on life. Every time I’ve seen him, he’s so excited about his J110 class. That kind of enthusiasm is really special for us.”
“Kate would love to know her scholarship is helping Kolby go to school,” she added. “I know she really liked him.”
And, if Harrell keeps his grades up, Kate Comiskey’s scholarship will keep helping him go to school. It’s renewable all four years he’s an undergradudate.
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