TOWAMENCIN – Colleen Felder is one of six kids, three boys and three girls in a close knit family. She also has two children of her own, a daughter about to turn six and son who is eight years old. Having moved often in her lifetime, Felder has seen the value of family in her life as that stable foundation on which she has always relied. Sometimes, according to Felder,  family isn’t necessarily who you’re related to; your friends can become your family as well.

“I went to three high schools in four years. High school in New York State is ninth grade through twelfth grade, and we moved just about at the end of ninth grade from the Buffalo area to the Binghamton area. So tenth, eleventh and half of twelfth grade, I was in Binghamton. Halfway through my senior year of high school we moved again up to the Waters Borough area. It was really hard; I  definitely struggled with that. I had an option to stay actually-  my math teacher offered to let me live with her. Her daughters were off in college and we were very close family friends, and she said I could stay and finish out my senior year and visit my parents on the weekends. However, on the first day of my senior year my little brother was born and that really changed things for me. For the next month I had really thought about staying with the math teacher. I had my social life, my niche and I actually had a scholarship if I wanted it to Catholic University of America, from the church. By moving that became null and void but I had already decided that I didn’t want Catholic [University] anyway. I decided to go with my family because I’m very very close with my family and when it came time to make the decision I just couldn’t imagine being away from my five brothers and sisters, the baby, and my parents. I didn’t love the end of high school; my smile on graduation day was because I was done, and that was the only happiness,” said Felder.

Having moved a lot as a kid brought Felder’s family very close and reinforced moral values her parents always taught as a child. “It’s not where you are, it’s who you’re with” and Felder still believes that to this day.

“I can easily move if something came up in my husband’s work and they needed us to move or if I had an opportunity somewhere I could move. Because it’s not where you are it’s who you’re with. Ultimately I can look back and say it was a good experience. In a time when you are a teenager and your parents are making you move, you do a lot of rebellious things- you struggle with that; it was tough. Fortunately, I moved into a district that had great theatre, a great music program, and I wanted to pursue that in college. I was going back and forth between music and education and so I moved into a district that allowed me to continue my passion. I had just started auditioning for colleges, my teachers helped me out with the rest of my auditions, and I got into the schools I wanted to,” commented Felder.

Being one of six kids, college tuition was a big ticket item in Felders’ household. Picking a college would have to depend heavily on the academics as well as the tuition and fees.

“For one thing I was broke and I was one of the oldest of six so I knew my parents would struggle with paying for [my tuition]. I had been working for a couple years babysitting [and working at] the good ol’ McDonalds drive-through, putting a little bit of money away, but a big part of it  part was going to be finances. I was going for vocal performances, but I did want general education and wanted to go to a liberal arts college as well. New York State has a great system called S.U.N.Y, State University of New York. It’s fantastic for music. So what it really came down to- I couldn’t afford Ithaca College. I got in for music- I just couldn’t afford it, it wasn’t going to happen. So I had to decide between SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Fredonia. Potsdam was near where my parents lived and Fredonia was where my big brother was going and near Buffalo where I used to live so I decided to go back to Fredonia. I really liked that campus; it was the right fit for me absolutely, and the music program there was fantastic so I had a really good experience there. Not only in the music program but also when I dropped it and went into education. It was a seamless transition for me,” stated Felder.

There are many memories and experiences that people take away from college, and for Felder, her friends remain at the top of that list.

“The friends that I made in college are still my best friends, and we happen to all be teachers. We don’t live in the same place anymore; we are all over the place, but we have seen each other through so much like children and weddings and so much more. I have to say the lifelong friendships are the most memorable. said Felder.

Felder is also a big advocate for students attempting hands on learning experiences that are outside of the normal classroom experience. Whether it may be studying abroad or an internship, Felder is all for it having taken advantage of the Disney College program, which may or may not have involved putting on a pair of glass slippers herself.

“A Disney representative came to my college and a bunch of us went to an interest meeting and they interviewed us and I got in. I had actually never been to Disney before I went down there, I loved everything Disney. I got offered a job to spend a semester in Disney world. You get business credits and they paid you peanuts, but it was an amazing social experience. I highly recommend anybody who can either travel abroad, do an internship, have one of those nontraditional classroom learning experiences. It taught me how to manage myself even better than college did, and I have lifelong friends from there as well,” said Felder.

After college Felder went back to her summer hospital job as she applied around looking for work.

“I got really lucky and got called for a job interview in a town that I’ve never heard of before, a half hour away from my parents. I looked it up real quick on a map and Hammond was absolutely the middle of nowhere and so we drove up there and the job was for teaching 10^th, 11^th, and 12th grade English. In a building that was K through 12th grade that graduated 25 students a year. I would be the only high school English teacher; It was just such a different world. I went in I interviewed and they called me the next morning at the crack of dawn. I was just 22, just out of college and now I would be on my own teaching 18 and 19 year olds and there’s not a big difference there. It was really quite a challenge to work with them those couple of years until I learned how to assert myself as the authority in the room.”

“I actually met my husband through there because he’s related to everyone there. I had happened to make friends with some of the local people my age and my husband was already living and working in this area, but he was from the Thousand Islands in New York and he would come home to visit and would enter that social circle. We eventually got to know each other. It took a couple years, we actually couldn’t stand each other at first until we literally got stuck on a boat together. We were going to the river and my friend said “oh your favorite person is coming” and I said it better not be Shawn Felder and he said “yeah it is be nice” and he and I were on this boat just talking and I don’t know it just happened,” said Felder.

“I taught in Hammond for four years and it was a great experience for beginning to learn how to teach and for working on myself, but I knew it wasn’t my last stop. Geographically it wasn’t where I wanted to be and it just didn’t have everything I wanted. My husband was already living down in this area and so he invited me down and so I finished my last year at Hammond, already had gotten my masters during that time,” said Felder.

Felder wrapped things up and started applying all over Delaware and Montgomery County. She got a few job offers but ultimately knew where she was meant to teach.

“I had known coming into North Penn that this was where I wanted to teach, it just felt right from the moment I walked into the door. I actually interviewed at Penndale and I loved it. I walked in and it confirmed that this is the place where I always thought I would teach. But then Mr. Frederick had been the principal here at the high school and he called me and said I actually need an English teacher up here at the high school and you’ve been teaching 10th 11th and 12th grade. I came up here and I loved it all the more and I’ve loved it ever since; I’ve been here for 13 years; I can’t imagine being somewhere else.

Through the years Felder can reminisce on all the wonderful and exciting memories that she has encountered throughout the years of teaching here at North Penn.

“I’ve had lots of interesting moments in the classroom, from a student sticking metal into an outlet just because he was curious to see what would happen to a young woman’s water breaking on the floor and going into labor. What’s bizarre now career wise is the number of my former students coming back into the profession. Whether they work as teachers or work in this district, all of a sudden we are on a first name basis professionally as opposed to Mrs. Felder and student. I say it’s bizarre only because it’s a surreal experience, I’m actually loving it. However there’s always that weird crossover, but that starting to happen is definitely the strangest thing happening in my 17 years of teaching,” commented Felder.

After teaching for thirteen years and as former students return and new students emerge, Felder remains just as passionate for her job as she did on day one.