Leelanau School teacher, Elizabeth Blondia, was one of 10 educators to receive the 2025 Outstanding Educator Award. The award is given in collaboration between the Northwest Education Services, Traverse Connect, and TBA Credit Union.
“I’m just really honored to be given this award! Teachers don’t get into this to be recognized, we’re usually very humble and it’s almost embarrassing to get this kind of attention. But, to be recognized feels really good. Teaching has been my life’s work so it’s nice to hear that I’ve impacted people in a positive way.”
Blondia serves as the current Humanities Department Head and teaches or has taught subjects such as American Government, Modern World Civilizations, Modern World Literature, American History, Senior Seminars and unique winter term classes.
While her roots in education run deep, coming from a family of teachers, Blondia didn’t start out wanting to join the family business. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Valparaiso University.
Blondia explained, “Originally I thought that I would go to law school, maybe into politics just because I was so interested in it. But then I really realized that I didn’t have the personality for either of those — not a thick enough skin.”
She had moved to Chicago in her 20s to work at a publishing company and bookstore when it finally hit her that she needed to be a teacher. After her revelation she earned her Master of Education degree from DePaul University and worked as a tutor.
“Tutoring in Chicago is kind of how I came into teaching,” said Blondia. “It wasn’t my initial plan. In fact it was the opposite of that just because I said that I’m not going to be what my family has always been. But, you know, it’s just in my heart and it makes sense.”
Elizabeth began her teaching career as a student teacher at the Leelanau School in 1998. She recalled being in Leelanau on a vacation with one year left of grad school that included a student teaching requirement and fell in love with the area.
“I was just kind of itching to get up here! My DePaul advisor had a place up here and so she said I could do a semester of student teaching up here and that she could come and observe. The following year the teacher I student taught with moved to a different boarding school, so I just slid into her job and I’ve been here ever since.” Blondia teaches sophomore through senior humanities classes and includes thoughtfully unique subject material that you might not find in many other highschool classrooms. For example, her Modern Civilizations class is currently reading “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah to study imperialism in Africa.
Those types of reading materials could be seen as a reflection of her teaching style emphasizing a connection between each subject and the real world.
“I used to team teach in the early 2000s and I love that approach. Just really helping the students to see connections that you miss. A lot of times you go from your math class and then English class and you don’t see the connections between anything and I love when we can just make it clear that everything is really connected.” Blondia said.
BLONDIA
She creates a collaborative, creative environment in her classroom in which there is an open channel of communication between students and teachers.
On top of her usual humanities classes, Blondia also teaches during Leelanau School’s winter term. Winter term is a time used for trips abroad and when teachers can create a class on whatever subject they choose. Blondia has taught winter term classes on the popular show “Ted Lasso”, on the Danish concept of “hygge”, a cooking course, and one of the history of the British monarchy when studying abroad in the United Kingdom. For her course on “Ted Lasso”, Blondia and the class would watch the show together and then discuss how they found examples of the school’s seven core values throughout each episode.
Something that The Leelanau School maintains is that “learning should be joyful and a process of discovery” and that each student has their own learning style. This is something that Blondia is acutely aware of in her classroom.
Blondia said that “If kids haven’t learned something or if they’re not getting something my philosophy is that we just have to wait and it will eventually happen. In my 27 years here I’ve been able to see that we just have to wait and be patient.”
She talked about how a lot of her teaching philosophy comes from a place of cultivating relationships with students and wanting to be a constant for them in this chaotic world.
“They’re at a prickly age, (in high school) and maybe not trusting adults or had a difficult experience with previous teachers. So I really want my students to trust me as an adult in their life and make sure that they feel good about themselves as people. It’s my job to teach them to believe in themselves again and realize that learning can be really, really fun.”
Blondia wants her students to be able to advocate for themselves. If a certain way of teaching or taking an exam isn’t working for them, she expects her students to speak up about it and ask for help. It’s concepts like this that highlight It’s no surprise that Blondia is being recognized as the great educator that she is.
In order to be nominated for the Outstanding Educator Award, letters must be sent in by a current student and current parent, an alumni and alumni parent, as well as colleagues and administrators.
“I got to see the letters and of course they made me cry,” said Blondia.
Being able to read the letters from former and current students opened her eyes to how much she really impacts the life of those she teaches.
Blondia explained that,“During the day-to-day stuff you don’t actually kind of see the impact you’re having very often and in fact, sometimes even when kids graduate, they still don’t let you know that you’ve made an impact on them, because you’re kind of in the weeds with them during school. So it means so much to get that perspective of somebody who’s now been out in the world for five years is really important to me.”
