Tierney, now 25, had at least 20 surgeries.
“OK, I’m definitely supposed to be here and I’ve definitely got some purpose. So, I need to really try and pay attention and try to listen and find out what it is,” Tierney said, recalling what she thought to herself back then.
Right now, Tierney believes she’s here to help the children of Moraine Meadows Elementary succeed academically. The 2002 Archbishop Alter High School graduate is starting her education career as one of the school’s Title I reading specialists.
Tierney had applied for education jobs at other schools after she graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, but was grateful to get her job at Moraine Meadows. It’s the school where she had done substitute teaching and where her grandmother, Andrea Fitzgerald, had been a Title I reading aide for 15 years.
“That’s why I didn’t get those other jobs because this is where I was supposed to be,” Tierney said.
At first, the Centerville native wanted to be a nurse to honor those who helped her recuperate from her accident. But while in college, she said she had “an epiphany” that she was supposed to be a teacher and changed her major.
“I always felt like I belonged at school. That was my favorite part of the day. You could always succeed in school, even if you feel like your life outside of there isn’t really that great or that successful. I could always do well in school and gain a high self-esteem there,” she said. “I kind of wanted to pass that along to other kids, that it doesn’t matter what’s going on, outside of here. In your life, you can be a success in the classroom. You can get lost in a book. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think your family can afford college, you can stay focused. You can earn your way to college. You can do things that you don’t think are possible.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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