What’s your name and title? Andy Swedberg, counselor.
How long have you worked at Niles North? This is my 30th school year. I was a math teacher for 19 years and a counselor for the last 11.
You’ll be retiring at the end of this year, what are your big retirement plans? You know, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know. I don’t have any plans yet. I don’t know what I’m going gonna do. One thing I may do is go to Italy for my 60th birthday. But other than that, I have no plans.
What has impacted you the most from your time at Niles North? Some of the colleagues that I’ve had. And then it’s kind of weird, it’s a weird job. Because, as in the teaching profession, or you know, in working in education, obviously, [teachers] keep getting older, but the kids and the students and the athletes or whoever you work with, are always the same age. So it’s kind of a weird concept and I think that influenced me to try to stay, in all, active and as positive as possible.
You went to Niles North as a student as well, how have you seen the school change the most? Well, you know, looking back and high school, I think you know that I think some of the obvious things are, is just, gosh, knowing how kids interact and their communication. The inevitability of electronic communication, and just like in my career, in the 30 years here, how much that has changed. I kind of worry about what’s that done to social relationships. Back in the day, and I read this in an article or something: If you were alive in the 80s, if you didn’t go to the mall, to hang out and interact with kids and peers or whatever, you were out of the group. You know, that was the big thing— just to go to the community center and develop those types of relationships. I think it was an easier time to be a teenager, an easier time to interact with peers than it is now. I think social media and the event of all the MySpace or YourSpace or whatever, makes it a lot more difficult.
What was your favorite thing about teaching math? I think the best thing about teaching math was to see the growth in students and how they would grow and develop throughout any one school year. And then the bad news about being a teacher is I can have students in a class for a year, every day, pretty much for that school year and then never see them throughout the rest of their high school career. I think that could be good news too. If you had some students you didn’t necessarily gel with in terms of student-teacher interaction. You never saw him again. That could be the good news.
Describe your favorite travel experience. I think my favorite experience was when we went to Costa Rica. You’re in a third-world country. I think it was an eye-opening experience for me and my kids [to] see how people live outside the United States. It was beautiful, but you know, different, for sure.
Who was your role model as a kid? I had a next-door neighbor that I would say was my role model who was a teacher at Evanston Township High School. And I got to know him when I was 10 years old when they moved in next door. He was a big influence on my life. Family guy, a teacher, and really into his profession.
What was your first job? Well, I’ve been working since I was probably in sixth grade. So I worked as, and a lot of people won’t understand this, but I worked as a paperboy. I would ride my bike delivering newspapers throughout the neighborhood in Morton Grove. All seasons. Think about back in the day when it snowed a lot more than it does now. It didn’t make a difference. I was riding my bike in the snow and the rain the sleet the sun, everything.
What impact do you think you left on Niles North? I think the impact that I have left is to be somebody consistent for student needs. I think, you know, consistent in terms of being present
If you could give a piece of advice to Andrew Swedberg on his first day at Niles North as a high schooler, what would it be? You’re a knucklehead and you have got to realize what you are doing today is going to impact you in your future. You got to work harder and you got to take your education more seriously. Yeah, that’s what I would say.
