Student Danielle Tall during a session of Team Fortitude at the Shaker Heights Schools Innovative Center for Personalized Learning.
WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | SUMMER 2021 65
“He jumped right in and said that he completely
understood how I felt. He said that he wanted to hear more
about my learning style. All of a sudden, someone was
paying attention to me, listening to me,” she says.
Simon asked Danielle to join Team Fortitude and to
apply to be on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory
Council. She now participates in both.
“When I was alone, I felt like I was setting myself up
for failure, but now, I feel like I’m being set up for success,”
she says.
Danielle’s mother, Joi Taylor-Powell, is thrilled.
“Mr. Simon homes in on each student’s individual needs,
then he and the staff members support those needs. It’s
really made a difference,” she says. “Danielle’s outlook has
changed. She used to think that after high school, she might
attend community college, which would have been fine. But
now she’s looking at going to Howard University. When she
realized what she was capable of, everything changed.”
Lori Thorrat’s son, Nathan Kocsis, a junior, has also
found his recipe for success at the IC. Last spring, Thorrat
noticed that Nathan was struggling when his classes
shifted to online at the start of the pandemic. Nathan, who
has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder, was growing increasingly disengaged from school.
Thorrat reached out to Juli to see if there were any other
options for her son.
“I remember him asking me, ‘How flexible are you?’
I didn’t know what the IC was, but Mr. Juli suggested that
I have a conversation with Mr. Simon.”
Simon shared his vision for the IC and for Nathan.
“Then we brought Nathan into the conversation and it really
seemed to appeal to him,” Thorrat says. “The fact that he
could be online and be with people appealed to him. So we
started with one class, then we moved to another, and now
we’re taking three classes at the IC. He’s still taking his AP
European History class, which he loves, at the High School.
“He’s a really bright kid, but he struggles with some
of the executive functioning skills that other children take
for granted. Now, he doesn’t feel the pressure that he felt
when he was put on the spot for not doing something that
he genuinely may not have known how to do.”
Since Nathan started at the IC, Thorrat says that her
son has been more optimistic about school and about his
future. Last semester, he started working on a personal
project that involved building a computer. “For Nathan to
say that he likes to assemble things and to solve problems
and that he’s interested in mechanics is the most downto
earth and focused he’s ever been about his future,”
Thorrat says.
During a recent chat with Thorrat, Simon told her that
Nathan is a natural leader who collaborates well with other
students who share similar struggles. “When you have a kid
who’s struggled for so long, you don’t expect to hear good
things,” she says. “It was something that was so gratifying
to hear. I feel like the IC is absolutely the right thing for
Nathan right now.”
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE