After living on opposite sides of the country for the past four years, the Grzesiak siblings are reunited at Hillsdale Academy doing what they love best: teaching.
Tomek Grzesiak ’14 moved back to Michigan and started working as an assistant director with the Barney Charter School Initiative in 2018. Przemek Grzesiak ’12 soon followed his brother to Hillsdale, where he had a split role between the K-12 office as the curriculum coordinator and part-time teacher at Hillsdale Academy. Now, each of them teach different grades at the Academy. Monika Grzesiak moved from Texas to Michigan this summer to teach at Hillsdale Academy as a 7th grade English teacher.
“As far as siblings go, we get along pretty well,” Przemek said. “So I think we’re all quite glad to be in each other’s company on a daily basis.”
Soon after getting married, Przemek and his wife decided they wanted to move to Hillsdale in 2019.
“We love the idea of living in a small town and we are very attached to Hillsdale College,” he said. “The opportunity to work with the K-12 office was special as I had long admired the work of that office, I just never thought I’d find myself working in it.”
Przemek accepted a full-time position at Hillsdale Academy this summer. He teaches physical education full time and one 7th grade history course.
“Even when I was working in the K-12 office, I looked forward to those days when I got to teach at the Academy. So when the opportunity to teach full time presented itself, I took it.” Przemek said.
Tomek also made the transition from the K-12 office to Hillsdale Academy where he is a 4th grade teacher.
“It was my experience at Hillsdale that made me think that I’d want to spend my life being a teacher,” Tomek said.
Przemek, Tomek, and Monika last worked together in 2017 when they taught at the first-ever established Barney Charter school, Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville, Texas.
Przemek became a 6th grade history teacher at Founders in 2013, and Tomek joined him in 2014 as a 7th grade English teacher. Monika eventually became an 11th grade English and rhetoric teacher in 2017.
Przemek said when he and his siblings were teaching at the same school in 2017, he enjoyed their company and seeing them every day.
Although the Grzesiaks enjoyed working together, when Tomek was presented with the opportunity to move back home to Michigan, he could not pass it up.
While the Grzesiak siblings were at Founders, they served their students well and maintained good rapport with other faculty members, said Jason Caros, headmaster at Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville, Texas.
“All three Grzesiaks made their individual marks on our students, but their presence on campus together added a unique and positive element to our school culture, which I suspect will carry on for the students at Hillsdale Academy,” Caros said.
The Grzesiak siblings are great teachers who share a passion for education and their students, said Alex Misko, assistant headmaster at Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville, Texas.
“As siblings, one might assume that they stood apart,” Misko said. “Instead they fit seamlessly and indeed helped to create the faculty culture.”
Tomek said it is a comfort knowing his daughter’s aunt and uncle are teaching at the same place she attends school.
Although Przemek knew he wanted to become a teacher since he was in 9th grade, he credits many of his professors at Hillsdale for inspiring him to be where he is today.
“When you’re learning from a great professor, and their love for the subject is on full display, it inspires a student to love the same.” he said. “It made me want to teach all the more, and to share these beautiful things which I was learning.”