Faculty Spotlight: Mrs. Rizk

After earning her B.A. in integrated language arts education at Ohio University, Mrs. Jackie (Sofranko) Rizk ’03 returned to teach at her alma mater.

Currently the speech teacher and assistant cross country coach, Mrs. Rizk also taught English during her 14-year tenure. Throughout her career, she has utilized as much technology as possible, including the ActivPanel, videos, Google Classroom, and slides.

Describing her passion for her current role, Mrs. Rizk says, “I absolutely love watching the change in students' confidence throughout the semester. Many of them begin feeling nervous, and some even hate the idea of having to speak in front of an audience, but most of them leave the class feeling more confident and prepared to take on any future public speaking experiences. I also really love that I am the only speech teacher, which means I get to meet and learn more about every single student in the building. I learn so much from my students, and I love that too!”

Asked to identify her favorite lessons, Mrs. Rizk settled on a tie between impromptu speaking and debate. She wishes she had an entire semester to focus on those lessons because “the skills the students learn are so beneficial for the rest of their lives.”

Mrs. Rizk’s passion for learning and helping others inspired her to become a teacher. She explains, “I knew I wanted to do something where I helped people. I wasn't sure when I started college what exactly that might be, but then I thought about people who had helped or impacted me throughout my life, and the answer was pretty clear. Those people were my teachers and coaches, specifically some of the teachers and coaches I had at HN.”

She describes HN as a “second home,” noting that she has spent 18 years of her life, including four years as a student, at HN.

When she’s not at school, Mrs. Rizk enjoys spending time with her family, going on adventures with her kids, traveling, running, and attending and watching Cleveland sports events.

She encourages her students to be themselves: “Don’t try to impress anyone. People will be most impressed with who you really are anyway. Try to see the positive side of things, laugh and have fun every day.