By Zoe Folsom
Northern Michigan University has only spent about half of its 120+ year history with that appellation; when the inaugural class received their teaching certificates at the turn of the 20th century, they graduated from Northern Normal School. Normal Schools had popped up all around the country in the latter decades of the 1800’s, with the intention of training schoolteachers for the growing American population. In the interest of bettering public education in the Upper Peninsula, advocates in Marquette lobbied the state legislature for a normal school of their own, emphasizing the lack of educational opportunities for the isolated residents of the Upper Peninsula. Their fight was won, and Northern has served a vital role in educating the citizens of the U.P. ever since—not just in providing a closer place for high school graduates to attend college, but by training and certifying the teachers who populate U.P. schools.
At the beginning, Northern Normal School offered a unique opportunity: women who had few career opportunities at the time could come and study for their teaching certificates. One such woman was Olive Fox, who attended Northern Normal in the early 1920s. In a 1994 oral history interview, Fox remembered that she and her friends were anxious to attend college. She wanted to be challenged, and was delighted to be able to stand in the “finely crafted” campus buildings and consider herself a part of Northern. She went on to help teach classes for Northern Normal School, and to teach in the schools of the Upper Peninsula.
By the middle of the 20th century, Northern Normal had become Northern Michigan College of Education, but it was still a small institution that largely granted teaching degrees and certifications. Marcia Niemi already knew some about NMC’s teacher training, as she’d been a student in the John D. Pierce School from 4th to 9th grade, so when her school superintendent offered her a scholarship to study at Northern, she took it. At the time she enrolled, Northern still only had a few hundred students, though the population grew to more than 1000 by the time she left. Campus thrived with social sororities and fraternities—as Marcia put it, “my time could not have been any better than it was.” The school had a great reputation for its teacher training, and she said she could have gone to any state in the country to teach with her Northern degree. However, she chose to stick around in the U.P, teaching for multiple decades in the Munising Schools. At that time (and still today), a substantial portion of the teachers in U.P. schools earned their credentials from Northern.
As time went on and Northern Michigan College became Northern 
Michigan University, education became less central to its identity. However, NMU continued to graduate plenty of education majors each year (now receiving bachelor’s degrees rather than teaching certificates), and for women, it continued to offer pathways to still-limited career options. Retired teacher and NMU alumnus Sandy Bonsall explained in an interview that she when she enrolled at NMU in the late 1960’s, she saw her only two options as nursing or teaching. “I just didn’t even have a wide enough vision to think that it was more than that”, she said. Fortunately, her time at Northern showed her just how great an impact she could make, and teaching no longer seemed like a fallback, but a calling. Cindy Kotila, another teacher alum, originally went to school in Duluth, MN, earning a degree in education because it seemed like a practical choice. It wasn’t until she began to teach in the schools of the UP and take extra classes at Northern that she discovered that teaching wasn’t just the practical choice, it was her passion; she said of her experience, “taking classes really opened doors so that I’ve continued to explore lifelong learning.” She went on to almost complete a second undergraduate degree from NMU (she couldn’t fulfil her final requirement—student teaching—because she was hired for a full time position teaching art for Negaunee Public Schools), as well as her master’s degree.
When teachers attend Northern, they tend to leave with much more than just a degree and a license to teach; 
they leave as richer human beings. For most, their time at Northern isn’t just about learning to become a better teacher. Sandy Bonsall’s horizons broadened considerably during her time at Northern: “I came from little Menominee, I didn’t know if I wanted to be a nurse or a teacher…when I think of the influences of Northern, like opening up the world to me, the awareness of the role of women…was one of the ‘opening my world experiences’”. In addition to personal growth, Northern also offered intellectual opportunities outside of education. Jane Kopecky, who taught for years in the eastern U.P., had a directed study in history with Dr. Russell Magnaghi that would become the basis for the first historical book she wrote. Looking back, she thinks she would not have started writing histories of the U.P. without the influence of her history classes at Northern. These classes, influential as they are during one’s youth, can continue to impact teachers’ lives: Don Balmer, a former Marquette industrial arts teacher, has continued to take classes since retirement—he’s completed the HVAC program, the automotive technology program, obtained his wilderness first responder certification, and even became certified as an EMT when NMU offered it.
Although the quality of the education program remains among the best in the area, much has changed since Northern certified its first class of teachers. Initially, the school only granted certificates, which were usually earned over the course of a few summers. They lasted a lifetime, and teachers had often already begun to teach before receiving certification (thus the summer school arrangement). Gone are the days when one could find a teaching job without prior certification. Now, NMU offers both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in education, as well as a bridge doctorate program with Central Michigan University. This means that Northern now has the ability not only to offer teachers to the schools of the U.P., but specialists and administrators as well. This opportunity has allowed some of the most committed teachers in the area, like Dr. Travis Smith of Cherry Creek Elementary and Dr. Jessica Betz of Father Marquette Catholic Academy, to move into roles
Nowadays, those seeking a degree in education from NMU come from a variety of backgrounds. Of course, there are still the stories of individuals who grew up in the U.P. who went on to teach in or near their hometown (like Blythe Raikko, a Marquette native who now teaches history at Marquette Senior High School, or Dr. Jessica Betz, principal of Father Marquette Catholic Academy), though these accounts are mixed with those who came from further away (usually downstate Michigan) and decided to settle down in the U.P. after graduation. In many cases, like that of Bothwell Middle School STEM Teacher Cameron Bancroft, student teaching leads to a full-time position. When teachers see a chance to stay in these schools, they jump at them. And the reverse is true, too: U.P. schools love to hire NMU graduates, and a sizable portion of the teachers in many surrounding school districts are NMU alumni. In the case of Marquette Public Schools, Sue Szczepanski guessed that throughout her career, 90% of teachers had their degrees from Northern. For others, though, the path to teaching in UP schools takes a more winding course. Dr. Travis Smith obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degree downstate before teaching abroad in Europe and Asia. Now the Principal of Cherry Creek Elementary in Marquette, and a graduate of NMU’s bridge doctorate program with Central Michigan University, he plans on making the U.P. his home for the rest of his life. Despite living all around the world, he feels just as strongly about this area and his service to it, even serving as the one and only U.P. representative on the Michigan Governor’s Return to School Working Group during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some NMU alumni educators have felt so strongly about their time at Northern that they’ve come back to work in the very department from which they graduated. Both Dr. Derek Anderson, professor of education, and Dr. Joe Lubig, associate dean and director of the Department of Education, Leadership, and Public Services, originally obtained their bachelor’s degrees from NMU. Sue Szczepanski, who got her master’s at NMU, taught as a contingent professor in the education department for thirteen years after retiring from the public school system. Though there is certainly much to miss about working in primary and secondary schools, these professors see their current roles as a way to have an even greater educational impact. Dr. Lubig, who has fronted the Education department for the past decade, thinks of his role as a unique opportunity to give back to the program that gave him so much, and that he knows so well. He said of his position: “I’m really proud that I’ve graduated from the program with my undergrad, with a master’s degree, and I have taught in every program that we deliver out of this department…I don’t think a lot of people can say that in their positions. I think I have a deep knowledge of what happens and how it happens here.”
Despite the variety of their schools, their subjects, and their experiences, there’s one thing that connects all of Northern’s alumni teachers: a genuine love for this region and its people. Because of the U.P.’s smaller communities, teachers often intimately know their students and their students’ parents. They teach their friends’ kids, their relatives’ kids, and sometimes even their own kids or their former students’ kids. Teachers within schools have to work together and share resources. Outside of the classroom, NMU teacher alumni work (sometimes with Northern) throughout the education system and beyond to offer opportunities to enrich their communities. They serve on school boards, like Dan Obradovich of Wakefield, or they serve on State and Regional Association boards. They create programs the community can engage with, like the annual children’s art exhibition at NMU’s Devos Art Museum (started in part by Cindy Kotila), or the annual Two Books, Two Communities Program (begun with the efforts of Sue Szczepanski). Don Balmer, another NMU teacher alum, taught driver’s education for 30 years. In their free time, they do what the people of the U.P. love, skiing and hiking, biking and swimming. Marquette Senior High co-teachers Blythe Raikko and Kris O’Connor were adamant that they’re “careful about not taking [the U.P.] for granted”.
In many ways, the fabric of U.P. communities is stitched together by the devotion of its teachers. From those who have never left the U.P., to those who were so enchanted that they had to find a way to stay, this region’s teachers love their work, and do everything they can to make their classrooms the best they can be. Despite lower pay, and less resources, and bitter winters, they would never dream of going anywhere else.