By Peyton McCaw, Talon Staff reporter

Emily Ochesky runs a busy schedule. The moment she steps foot on campus, she’s working to help students reach their goal of graduation.

Her day starts off busy. During first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth period, she supervises credit recovery classes in the library. Credit recovery is what students go through when they don’t earn enough credit to be on track to graduate. Ochesky supervises as students take online courses to earn their missing credits. Second and sixth period, she uses the time to catch up on her work in the Summit office and checking and answering emails. During lunchtime most days, she works in the student store selling cookies, soup, and other goodies to hungry. Lunchtime on Mondays however is a different story.

Unknown to a lot of people, Ochesky is the supervisor of HRV’s Fashion Club. She participates in the meetings, and makes sure all the events go smoothly. On field trips to the fabric store she makes sure permission slips go out, and buses are available for transportation. She confirms events and venues, sends texts to remind club members about meetings and extra opportunities, and just enjoys spending time with the students.

Unfortunately, she won’t be able to spend so much time around students anymore. Ochesky is moving down to the district office to work as an information support technician. She will still however, continue to be the fashion club advisor, so she can continue to connect with students. As a technician, she will be in charge of all the student and district data, and making sure it stays accurate and organized.

Even though she’s going away, she still stays busy. On top of credit recovery, being the fashion club advisor, working in the student store, and keeping on top of her work in the Summit office, Ochesky also helps with state testing, getting graduation programs ready, and helping with the water polo team.

“In the fall when water polo comes around, I make sure the team gets out of class and to the bus on time. I also help out at practices. It’s another way for me to connect with the students,” Ochesky says.

After she got out of high school, she went to college and got her bachelor’s degree in Humanities. Humanities is the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. Before coming to work at HRV, she worked at her parents heating and air conditioning business in Portland. When she moved here, she heard about a job opening at the high school, applied, and was hired.

“My favorite part of my job would be watching the students succeed,” she says. “However, when students are rude, disrespectful, or don’t care about their education, that’s the part I don’t like. It’s disappointing because I know they can be better. One thing I’ve learned from working with highschoolers is patience. Each student is different. No two kids are the same. They’re all their own individual, and you have to connect with them in a way that works for them. Some are quiet and you can hardly get them to talk, while others are more outgoing and talkative.”

For any students interested in the same profession as Mrs. Ochesky, you will want to have some training in education.

“You don’t have to have a bachelor’s degree to do what I do,” she says. “HRV offers internships for students interested in teaching. That way, students can experience firsthand what it’s like to be a teacher, and decide if it is or is not the career for them.”

At the end of the day, Ochesky has done her best to again help more students towards graduation. She has made an impact on HRV, because she encourages students to succeed. When students succeed, they graduate. She keeps everything organized, and because of that more people graduate. Just walking down the hall, students can find Mrs. Ochesky with a smile on her face. She seems to be everywhere sometimes. The halls of HRV will not be the same without her.