Sue Wilgocki recounts years well spent in education

A familiar face at High Plains Community School is hanging up her hat after a lifetime of teaching.
Currently the family and consumer science teacher, Sue Wilgocki has had quite the run and wore plenty of hats since she started her educational journey.
“I grew up near Duncan and that school closed,” she began. “I was the only one in my grade for the first five years. I then went to Osceola and graduated from there.”
After that she attended John Brown University in Arkansas. 
“I came back and wanted to stay in Nebraska,” Wilgocki explained. “(I then) started teaching at Nebraska Christian -- PE and English. That was my first job back in ‘79.”
She paused to let out a laugh. 
“And I was so bad at it,” she said lightly. “But I decided I better try another year and the second year was a little better. It just took a while.”
After teaching at Nebraska Christian for six years, Wilgocki said she thought she’d give being a stay-at-home farm wife a try.
That idea was quickly passed up, however.
“Then a job up at Monroe opened up and I joined the Twin River system for the next 17 or 18 years,” she said. “(That was) between Monroe, Genoa and Silver Creek.”
Finally, Wilgocki joined the staff at High Plains in 2005.
“And High Plains is a fantastic place to work,” she added. “Great administration and great people to work with.”
The majority of Wilgocki’s career at HPC consisted of teaching more PE and English -- up until two years ago when she switched to FCS. 
“I thought the grass looked greener on the other side of the hallway,” she said with a laugh. “So I switched over here to FCS, because it’s hard to find FCS-certified teachers and we needed one.”
It’s been a lot more fun than ACT prep and research papers, Wilgocki added. 
“So now we’re cooking and sewing and making barn quilts -- all kinds of different fun things,” she said. “(It’s been) a lot more relaxed than all the testing that goes on in the core classes.”
Asked why she wanted to go into education, Wilgocki admitted that she wasn’t quite sure what else to do. 
“I played volleyball in college and I thought, ‘I would love to go into coaching,’” she voiced. “So that’s kind of what brought me into it.”
After that she came to enjoy teaching somewhat too, Wilgocki admitted, and the students. 

Teaching philosophy
Drawing on her faith, Wilgocki has developed her own teaching philosophy. 
“I think it goes back to my life philosophy,” she said. “I don’t know how to word this, but I’m passionate about my savior Jesus Christ and I feel this is where he’s led me, into teaching, so maybe I can share His love with people around me.”
She’s even been able to help with FCA -- the Fellowship of Christian Athletes -- at High Plains. 
“But just every day, caring about the kids, they’re precious,” Wilgocki affirmed. “I hope I don’t get so consumed with the grading and the papers and all the other stuff that I ever lose sight of that.”
More recently in her career, with help from HPC Principal Cameron Hudson, senior seminars were introduced with a section on service projects that she helped facilitate. 
“So every day I get these five seniors for a month and I send them out all over to go help somebody or to go work at the library or go visit in the nursing home,” she said. “We make relationships with people in the community and it’s just so rewarding. That’s been a favorite part of mine.”
Wilgocki has seen her fair share of success in other ways as well. 
The proud athletic coach took a minute to reflect on different accomplishments achieved with help from her teams.
“The first year at Nebraska Christian we were 0-12 and five years later we went to state,” she said. “And over in Silver Creek I just walked into a good team and took them on and that was the first time they’d ever been to state.”
Other, smaller, successes were seen in teaching smaller students gymnastics in PE. 
Though she’s had a successful career, it hasn’t been without its challenges. 
“I’m not the most organized by nature,” Wilgocki said with another laugh. “So what would maybe take an organized teacher an hour takes me like an hour and a half, just because I’m kind of all over the place -- or it’s just maybe I talk more.”
That and taking on a number of things at once, she added. 
“I’ve been speech coach, and volleyball coach, and track coach, and prom sponsor,” she said. “All these things that I enjoy doing. It gets to be too much, but it’s workable.” 
She’s enjoyed helping, she added, spoken like a true team player.

Coming to a close
Having been at High Plains for as long as she has, Wilgocki has seen students come and go, only to be followed by their children. But that’s rewarding in and of itself, she says.
Now, for the hard question, what will she miss the most?
“That’s pretty easy, actually,” she said.  I’ll miss the kids and the people, the other teachers, not having that day-by-day interaction in their lives and them in my life.”
It probably won’t set in right away either, that she’s retiring, Wilgocki said. But she’ll stay busy.
“Every summer I make this to-do list and I don’t even get a fourth of it done because I fill it up with all kinds of other things,” she laughed. “So I’m sure once I retire it’ll be the same thing. I’ll have all kinds of other things to fill it in -- being active in my church and (spending time) with friends and family and grandkids. I’ve heard other retired teachers tell me that they’re as busy now as they’ve ever been.” 
As far as what’s next -- that’s up in the air. 
“Time with the grandkids,” she agreed. “I’ve got a couple of weddings in the family, and then maybe just cleaning those closets that haven’t been cleaned in 20 years. That kind of thing. But as far as working, I don’t know yet.”
High Plains might not have seen the last of her yet, however, she noted with a final laugh. Filling in as a sub every once and awhile might be on the table.