A La Porte County Life in the Spotlight: Erin Parker

A La Porte County Life in the Spotlight: Erin Parker

We are often told not to judge a book by its cover. While this cliché is usually accurate, in the case of La Porte High School teacher Erin Parker, the cover certainly matches the contents.

On the outside Parker is the picture of positivity. She is all smiles, dressed in happy colors and greets each of her students enthusiastically with a shake of springy curls. Her classroom is plastered with motivational posters, pictures of students, inspiring quotes and photos of her idols such as Ellen DeGeneres and Marie Osmond. As her students leave her classroom, Parker will often shout some spirited phrase such as, “Don’t stop being wonderful!”

On the inside, Parker practices what she preaches. She cares about her students and will truly do anything for them.

“I love my students. They are the best part of my job. I love watching my students achieve things and do things that maybe they didn’t think they could do. They inspire me to work harder. They are amazing. I don’t care how much money I make. It doesn’t matter to me, I just love being here,” Parker said.

She has even taken her love of people a step farther, and created a Kindness Campaign at the school that she hopes will go viral.

“It started from watching Kid President and was a personal resolution I made to try to make every day better for someone else, and then my students wanted to help. I’ve always really felt like I was meant to do something big. Through the Kindness Campaign, I have been inspired to pursue making this into a nation-wide thing for schools,” Parker said.

So far, she along with her students, have committed acts of kindness throughout the school and inspired other schools, some even in other countries to follow suit. Kid President and Marie Osmond even retweeted about Parker and the campaign.

Parker’s journey to service and education began in La Porte County. She attended Hailmann Elementary School, Boston Middle School and La Porte High School. It was her time at La Porte High School that helped Parker decide she would be an educator.

“I loved it here. I never missed a day unless I was deathly ill. I loved learning- I loved my teachers and that is where I realized I wanted to do this too. The day I walked into Mrs. Hunt’s class and when she opened her mouth, I knew that is what I wanted to do,” Parker said.

Parker loved English, journalism and especially yearbook class, and today she has earned the position as yearbook advisor.

“My favorite memory was the day that we got out yearbooks in this year. Just sitting with my staff and looking over everything that we were really proud we created. I really liked that,” Parker said.

She started her college career at Indiana University South Bend, and following freshman year she attended Indiana University Bloomington where she studied secondary education, English and journalism. After graduating she wasted no time in coming back to La Porte to begin her career.

“I felt that I had a lot of really great teachers here. I wanted to give back to the town that has given me so much. I like La Porte. I think it is a great town with a lot of potential. I love that we are so close to everything and still have that small town appeal. There are a lot of really nice people here,” Parker declares.

Besides her dedication to her students and the classroom Parker volunteers wherever needed. She is the varsity volleyball coach and helps with Girls on the Run. For already making such an impact, Parker has an abundance of future goals that serves as an inspiration to her students.

“I want to write a book. I have two ideas- one book on advice for teens that has helped me along my journey, and also a book on how to implement the Kindness Campaign into school curriculum. I want to teach for the rest of my life, but a big part of me wants to go out and make this kindness thing bigger and maybe work for a foundation. My ultimate dream would be to work for OWN Network,” Parker said.

To end her interview, Parker offered one of her always insightful pieces of advice for high school students.

“Kindness is free and it changes peoples’ lives. It helps the giver as well as the receiver. You can change the world,” she said.