The resiliency of a multiethnic working-class community school
Five years ago during COVID-19, I gave the commencement address to my alma mater, River Forest High School, one of the most unique schools in the country.
Five years ago, in 2020, I delivered the commencement address to my alma mater, River Forest High School (RF). While most schools canceled graduation as COVID-19 raged, the administration knew how important this day was to the kids, so they pushed the event back to July and hosted it on a socially distanced football field. One other school in The Region planned the same feat that summer but pulled out at the last second after the forecast showed it was certain to rain.
This post is an opportunity to reshare that speech, highlight one of America's most unique, hard scrabble school systems, and honor the place that gave me the tools needed to put my life on a different trajectory, especially after being awarded the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship.
While my speech only took five minutes to read, it took 16 hours to pencil out over a weekend as I was cooped up in my row house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., that June. Given the situation, the goal was to provide timeless wisdom while also trying to say something timely.
I’ve long followed the progress of the River Forest Community School Corporation (RFCSC) since graduating from college. Picking at the data on the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) website, a pattern emerged that didn’t make sense: the kids were an outlier compared to other schools around the state, regularly outperforming their poverty regarding test scores vs. free/reduced lunches. Before charter schools came online and school choice vouchers became available, RF was the fourth poorest in the state, behind East Chicago, Gary, Hammond, and the Indianapolis Public School (IPS) system. Something wasn’t adding up.
Because RF sits between the cities of Gary, Hobart, Lake Station, and the town of New Chicago, there is no center or downtown. In turn, the school has always served as the community's anchor. I politely call River Forest the “hillbilly overflow” school as it was thrown up in a rush in the late 1950s. The neighboring schools of Lake Station and Hobart were new but already busting at the seams from southern whites (most not from Appalachia) and some Mexican migration driven by jobs in the steel industry. Those transplants melted with the kids of first-wave immigrants of Polish, Slovak, and Croatian descent. That ethnic background is represented by the school’s mascot, Joe Magarac, a Croatian immigrant steelworker of folklore. The school was named River Forest for obvious reasons and called Ingots in honor of steelmaking, which peaked nationally in that era. Ingot casting is no longer done at fully integrated mills given a more efficient process called continuous casting.
I can’t count the number of teachers, past and present, who have told me how special and amazing their experience serving the kids at RF, especially compared to their time at the area's larger and more affluent schools.
RF has teachers who have dedicated 35-40-year careers to the district. Even during a teaching shortage, RFCSC continues to recruit and retain highly qualified and passionate teachers who remain in the corporation at a higher retention rate than other, even higher-performing districts.
Principal Gaelyn Mlynarcik represented River Forest at the Indiana Association of School Principals State Banquet, where she was recognized as the District 1 Principal of the Year in 2024.
Over the years, however, RF was dying slowly as people like me were told that success meant moving up and out, ideally with a college degree. My departure was one of many that led Lake Station to become the city with the most significant percentage decline in the 2010 census, second only to Gary in Northwest Indiana. My graduating class in 2003 was 75 kids, and my sister’s class just four years later barely broke 55.
With no major business assets in the district, RF had the lowest assessed value per student in Northwest Indiana, which made funding the school through property taxes no easy task. Given their commitment to the community, voters in the RF district were among the first in the state to successfully pass two school funding referendums that raised property taxes in 2015 and 2019. I was quoted in the Post-Trib on the importance of the first and was inspired to write an op-ed after the second.
Fifteen years ago, the charters pulled kids (mostly basketball players) away from public schools like RF. Over time, however, RF and the neighboring public school, Whiting, turned that narrative on its head. While some fell into a tailspin, RF moved in the opposite direction.
Today, nearly 500 kids use the school choice program and transfer into River Forest from other districts (in this order): Gary, Lake Station, Merrillville, Portage, and Hobart. The school also retains 90%+ of its own kids, ranking it 30th out of 290 districts statewide. This shift changed the school from 60/40 white ethnic majority when I graduated to now 70/30 minority-majority.
New challenges emerge when children don’t reside in the community in which they attend school, but the administration is committed to molding all children in the Ingot image.
The school superintendent, Kevin Trezak, a “lifer” from the district, says RF provides a “small school atmosphere with big school opportunities.” I could not agree more.
A few highlights from his previous letters:
a multi-award-winning band program has earned gold several years in a row at State-level competitions
a choral program that has seen similar success, with all individual participants receiving gold this past year (2018)
Academic teams that continue to be top-ten finishers at the state level.
Spell Bowl Teams that continue to be top-ten finishers at the state level
Most importantly, RF has been represented county-wide nearly 50% of the time since 2000 when it comes to a student (myself included) being awarded the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship administered by the Legacy Foundation, a four-year full-tuition ride to any college or university in Indiana.
One Legacy staffer cited a recent RF recipient, “During the interview process, he spoke highly of the high school administration and staff, which is something that not every candidate does.”
Saying please and thank you is free. Holding doors open for others is free. Showing up on time is free. Putting in the hard work needed to succeed is free. Two books remind me of some of the culture embedded in this school system: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
In November 2016, just a month before I moved to Washington, DC, I spoke to the first graders at Evans Elementary. They taught me so many things in that hour, but it was clear: those kids are in no better socioeconomic position than my cohort was 30+ years ago.
In May 2024, I decided to visit and give a talk to the seniors as a follow-up to my commencement address.
I assured them that while graduation was around the corner, there shouldn’t be any pressure to follow some pre-ordained “success model” sold to my generation; however, they needed to consider their future.
In my Elder Millennial rant, I encouraged the kids to spend time away from their phones and instead with real people because I believe the 2010s “Tech-Triad” of high-speed internet + smartphones + social media serves as a primary source of our mental health issues.
I plan to continue advocating for River Forest as a model school for working-class folks. Their unique mix of students, teachers, and administration is committed to maintaining community and building better outcomes regardless of circumstances. Where you come from doesn’t matter; it’s all about where you’re going.
Commencement Address - July 9, 2020
Greetings and congratulations, Class of 2020. Here we are, you made it! Graduating high school is a major accomplishment and one of the first of many milestones in your life.
I must, however, also offer my condolences. For the rest of your years, wherever you may go, you will have to explain to people what an Ingot is…. and hopefully, they won’t ask what the school colors are. They say it's red and gold, but is it Vegas gold, orange gold or mustard yellow? I guess it depends on which sport and what year we’re talking about.
Thank you to administrators, faculty, staff, as well as parents, family and friends, for allowing me the honor and privilege to speak to you.
When I originally wrote this speech last fall, we were living in a different world, one with an economy flying high and opportunities abound. While Class of 2020 slogans included “Perfect Vision” and “The future is clear,”, I think a more appropriate one now is “Hindsight is 20/20.” Because as time goes on, you will look back at this year, and know, that despite the adversity that was endured from this pandemic, you came out as a stronger person, class, and community.
It is the sacrifices and support over the years, by the families here today, that helped you reach this point of accomplishment. It is the faculty and staff that put in more than just a 40-hour work week, as they also served as coaches, mentors, and sometimes, just a person that was there to listen. Some staff have actually been here since the time of Abraham Lincoln. I’m looking at you Burton, Cullison, Thompson, Weitzel. But seeing as how they still have some hair on their heads, it looks like the jokes on me. In all seriousness, your investment in these young leaders cannot go without appreciation. Please give yourself a round of applause.
Many years ago, when I first started my career, a family member of modest means from rural-Kentucky, left me with two points of timeless wisdom that I would like to share with you. He said, “Robert, never be ashamed of what you do for a living, and never forget where you came from.”
Number 1. Never be ashamed of what you do for a living. The education you received here at River Forest should lead to a life of service, action, and leadership. My generation was told that college was the only path to success, but there are many ways to pursue your passion. At the end of the day, there is dignity in all work, whether you’re white-collar or blue-collar or somewhere in-between. It takes all kinds of kinds to make the world go round. One of my mentors said there are five pillars to a strong community: That is, education, business and labor, non-profits, government, and faith-based organizations. While your job will fall into one of these buckets, I encourage you to participate in another. Whether it's running for public office or volunteering at a local soup kitchen, serving others is a very rewarding experience and a great way to make your community a better place to work, live and play.
Number 2: Never forget where you came from. That’s why I’ve returned from Washington DC, for such a great event. When you leave River Forest this evening, always be proud to be an Ingot. As a bedroom community to US Steel in Gary, this place was never home to silver spoons, much less trust-fund kids. You might have started on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, but being from the working class is a real badge of honor. Despite minimum resources, I can see from test scores, sports teams, and other accolades reported in the media that you’ve outperformed all expectations set by the experts. As the story of David and Goliath reminds us, some disadvantages may actually indeed, be advantages.
Speaking of advantages, when did River Forest get air conditioning? Hard to believe the school didn’t even have AC when I graduated. But really, the advantage River Forest has, is the diversity of its student body, which is now minority-majority. That strength is something few schools in the Region, much less state, have accomplished. While others talk about integration and inclusion, you actually live it. As our historical challenge with race relations moves to the forefront once again, you are uniquely positioned to advocate for the values of liberty, freedom and justice as espoused by our Constitution. I challenge you to take action in a positive and thoughtful way, to help build a more perfect union.
To do this, it starts right here, by being present… and off your phone. Social media profits through the addiction to manufactured outrage. And while it’s a great source of entertainment at times, very few of society’s problems will be figured out on the internet. Finding solutions requires us to live outside our comfort zones by engaging others in an authentic way, which takes time and can only happen in person.
Now that I sound like an old timer ranting about the ills of technology and the internet, let’s finish this on a high note, which means for some of you, you can wake up now. I wish the Class of 2020 all the best in your endeavors. Maintain humility in your successes, learn from your failures, and always pay it forward. Thank you.
This is fantastic!
I truly believe that the Melting Pot was the genius of America!