Rosemary Tarnowski – Family & Consumer Science Teacher, Hastings High School

For 33 years, Rosemary Tarnowski has been committed to touching lives and making a difference in the students she teaches. In her work as the Family and Consumer Science instructor for grades 9-12 at Hastings High School, she knows that the right message can positively impact a student's future.

Over the past school year Rosemary's students have received life-changing messages such as how you dress can communicate self-respect, how alcohol dehydrates the brain of an unborn child, and how teen mothers really feel about their lives.

With a grant from the Hastings Public Schools Foundation, Rosemary was able to bring in speakers for three exceptional programs on teen sexuality, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and teen parenting. Responses from her students have been phenomenal.

“I've never seen so many students go up to talk to a speaker afterward,” says Rosemary of Pam Stenzel, (www.pamstenzel.com) a world-renowned presenter on teen sexuality who spoke to the entire high school. “She just knocked the kids' socks off. I could not have brought in someone like Pam without the grant.”

Speaking on everything from peer pressure, teen relationships and STDs to fashion trends and virginity, Pam used humor and love to share the realities of teen sex. Not only was there a palpable buzz in the high school as students talked over her message, school counselors noted an increase in visits from boys whose girlfriends had broken up with them, Rosemary says.

Lynne Frigaard, an expert on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome with ARC Northland in Duluth, reinforced the message of the dangers of even one drink while pregnant with a visual demonstration of vodka mixed with a raw egg. As the egg fried in the glass, she spoke to Rosemary's 200 students about the impact of alcohol on an embryo before a girl even realizes she is pregnant. She also spoke about the Fetal Alcohol Effect in which one drink by the mother during pregnancy can impair a child's impulse control and behavior later in life. Several parents and school district employees attended the presentations.

The third program included teen mothers working with TAPP, the Teenage Parenting Program in Dakota County. They gave Rosemary's students a dose of reality about raising a child often without a father, living with their parents and having no means to make a good living.

A big surprise to the students was that most of the teen mothers had used birth control, but it failed.

After each program, evaluations from the young men and women demonstrated a newfound respect for themselves and a better understanding of their choices, Rosemary says.

“I wish someone had told me this sooner,” one student wrote. Some students said that they realized sex was a much bigger deal than how it was portrayed by their peers or on television. Others said they had a more mature outlook on life and their future.

The impact on students and the caliber of speakers wouldn't have been possible without the HPSF grant, Rosemary says. “It's so refreshing to have this opportunity and know you have a shot at receiving a grant,” she says. “The Foundation makes it possible for teachers to do great things.”

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