WIDER INFLUENCE

Steve Robnick is a self-professed plant nerd, which might have something to do with why he (eventually) became a middle-school science teacher. Robnick studied botany at Miami University in Ohio but took a winding road on his way to a career in education.

After a short stint working for a logistics company in Chicago, he decided to go back to school for a master’s degree in education. It was his days as a youth swimming coach in Oxford, Ohio that led him to switch careers.

“During college I coached swimming. I was a swimmer growing up, and then I went back, and I coached my club team and that’s when I first started working with kids,” Robnick says. “That’s where this idea formulated that I should go on to education, just because I really enjoyed setting goals with kids and helping them achieve them.”

He started his education career teaching 7th and 8th grade science at West Ridge Elementary school in Chicago. After five years, he made the jump to Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS), and he’s happy he did.

“It’s a very close-knit school community with people who really partner with each other for the greater good,” Robnick says of LFCDS. “I think we have excellent personnel and the resources we have here just from a teaching perspective allow you to be effective.”

Being able to walk into the classroom every day knowing that you have the opportunity and the tools necessary to make a positive difference in each of the students, Robnick says, is key. Individual time with each student is not something that happens everywhere. That’s what he enjoys most about teaching at LFCDS.

In January, after teaching science for five years, Robnick was appointed Head of LFCDS’s Upper School, which serves grades 5 through 8. He says the opportunity to widen his impact and influence on students was a major factor in seeking the position.

“The reason I wanted to do this is I think I bring to the table, in terms of my philosophy and what motivates me, what is needed at the school at this time,” he says. “In this position, I get to support a larger number of students, faculty, and parents.”

Robnick says there hasn’t been anything he’s found more rewarding or satisfying than when he’s working with a student who comes up against a roadblock and he’s able to help them persist through it.

“You help them grow and help them learn and then the light bulb turns on,” Robnick says. “When things click, and they finally understand, and you see that look of recognition that they get it.”

With his background as a science teacher, Robnick says, he finds it important for kids to understand how to think critically. The ability to interpret data and to understand what is valid and what is not is critical in today’s day and age.

“We have to give kids that foundational background, how to ask questions, and how to come up with answers on their own,” he says. “Outside of my own personal satisfaction I get from the job, it’s just really important that kids and adults know how to do that, and that was my motivation for becoming a teacher.”

Lake Forest Country Day School is located at 145 South Green Bay Road in Lake Forest, 847-234-2350, lfcds.org.