Katherine Kozeniecki Sponder

Wow, thats a lot of ground to cover! Right now Larry and I are living on a small organic farm in the Champaign area. We keep bees and chickens, and grow good stuff for the local farmers market. We became foster parents last year and are working to adopt all of the kids very soon. I work part time for the University of Illinois as a clincal supervisor for the Speech and Hearing Sciences Dept, and contract to a local grade school to provide speech therapy for kids in Kindergarten through 8th grade.

My favorite memory is of the first week in Mr. Puente's 10th grade biology class. As he went to close the door he spied some brand new freshmen straggling in the hall, and he hollered "Freshmen suck!" and quick slammed the door, laughing. That got everyone's attention and he proved to be one of the best teachers I've ever had. Not only did he make it a fun class, but he actually bothered to care about his students. I was so sorry to see that he had passed and I know anyone lucky enough to have him as a teacher will always remember him fondly.