Portland, November 6th, 2014. The annual Partner with Edison Breakfast generated $185,000 to help support financial aid, technology, and professional development at the school. Edison is the only high school in Oregon and southwest Washington dedicated to students with complex learning differences. Supporters heard from senior Tessi Troup, and former student Greg Weaver, who shared their educational journeys. Current parent, Tina Ricks, spoke about the importance of Edison High School and the positive impact the school has had on her family. Director Patrick Maguire opened the event by unveiling the school’s new name and logo.
Dean Dordevic, Amber Hillman, and Ed Herinckx
Robb Wilson and Anne Stein-Gray
Rose Kilpatrick, Dolly Scott, Mary Anne Sandoval and Sandy Jones
Janeen McAninch and Edison Director Patrick Maguire
Greg Roderick and Edison board member Pat Becker
Jeff Gianola and James Johnstone
Carolyn Becic, Mike Arthur and Edison board member Michael Sandoval
Current students Nicole Strain and Jaylynn Bernhardt
Chris Gettel-Gilmartin, Sara Fitzpatrick, Tessi Troupe, and Ian Ricks
Edison High School, founded in 1973, is the only high school in Oregon and SW Washington that is specifically dedicated to serving high school students with learning differences. Our work at Edison is powerful and profound: helping every student reach his or her full potential. Edison offers an individualized curriculum that meets each student’s special needs, and maximizes the ability to learn. We also provide the emotional support that builds confidence and maturity. By empowering students with learning differences to experience academic success and personal growth, Edison does more than prepare teens for the future. We change lives.
Our school was founded in 1973 as the Tree of Learning. For 17 years, students were taught in portable classrooms on the Jesuit High School campus. In 1992, we moved into a brand new building of our own, changing our name to honor Thomas Alva Edison.
As a dyslexic, Edison struggled greatly in school, where he was considered a mischief-maker and a problem child. His mind often wandered in class, he talked when he was supposed to be listening, and he paid little attention to detail. The schoolmaster called young Edison “addle brained” and considered him such a poor student that he advised Edison’s mother to take him out of school altogether, “for he would never make a scholar.”
Of course, Edison proved everyone wrong. And while not every child with learning differences will achieve such notability as an adult, the example of Thomas Edison’s achievements serves as our daily inspiration. Just as Edison transformed the way we live, Edison High School works to transform the lives of our students.
