Margaret Korte
Print/Podcast Editor
“One of these days, maybe I can help the whole world, but for now, helping a couple students is enough,” said Trinity Madison, long-term substitute for drama teacher Alexandria Dickens.
Madison attended Webster as a student, graduating in 2019. She said the switch from student to teacher has been “an adjustment.”
“I know the majority of the teachers here from when I was in school, and so in some ways it’s hard to see them as coworkers instead of superiors,” Madison said. “There are some people that have really made the push to make me feel welcome…but in other ways, when I’m walking down the hall…I still feel like a student.”
Madison first came back in April as a part-time building substitute. She started filling in for Dickens when her maternity leave began in November and will continue until March 31.
Besides being a former student, Madison’s family has a long connection to Webster Groves High School.
“I’m, I think, the fourth generation of Webster [students],” Madison said. Her great-grandmother went to Douglass High School, and her grandmother went to Douglass before integrating into Webster. Her mother also went to Webster, and her uncle was the head custodian.
“When I came back [from college],” Madison said, “this was the first place that I thought of.”
According to Madison, drama teacher Todd Schaefer suggested the substituting job to her: “I recently was looking for positions, and I mentioned that to him, and he was like, ‘Hey, Mrs. Dickens is going on maternity leave; it’d be nice to have you in the department again.’”
As a student, Madison was a member of Webster’s theater troupe, which she credited for helping her find her passion for teaching drama.
“We traveled, we competed, and we were good at it,” Madison said. Her freshman year, Webster’s troupe went to state for its performance of “Hamlet.”
According to Madison, hundreds of schools would attend these conferences, and the winners in different categories would go to the next level. If a school in a specific category was judged as best in the state, then it would go on to the International Festival during the summer.
“There are these Student Thespian Officers…who helped put on the conferences every year,” Madison said. “I saw these STOs, and they were kind of the glue that held everything together for the students.”
“In between the competitions we had a bunch of different workshop classes that were just really, really fun and I…absolutely adored all of them, and I thought to myself, ‘Okay, so I’m going to go to this conference every single year, and then I realized I could apply to be an STO as well,” Madison said. “I also applied to be an officer of [Webster’s] troupe, Troupe 191.”
Madison was also chosen to be a Missouri State Thespian Officer, where she helped put on six conferences.
“We got to lead our own workshops, and that was my first time teaching a room of others, but it was all my peers and so it was really, really fun,” Madison said. They also helped to choose themes and judge different shows. “It was my first really big commitment, leadership-wise.”
Through being an STO, Madison said she realized how many different careers theater came with. “I didn’t really put two and two together until I got that position, and it was the most eye-opening thing of that time in my life.”
During that time, Madison was also an All Write intern and won it twice.
“I was getting really good in my writing, and I was doing gigs around St. Louis where I would do poetry readings and get paid for it, and I was like, ‘You know what? I think that I can make this a thing for others,’” Madison said.
Madison also credited some Webster staff members with encouraging her to follow her passions as a student: “[Todd] Schaefer, [Donald] Johnson, and then, we used to have an English teacher named Tamara Rodney, and they were…my big three mentors that made it possible for me to even go into education. I studied theater education in college, and there was a long time where I didn’t think…I could actually make a career out of it, and they are the three that, in their own different ways, supported me within that dream.”
Drama teacher Todd Schaefer said that Madison was a leader even as a student, when she served as an STO.
He also said that he’s happy she’s getting the opportunity to teach a class, and “Start a class with a roster, dip her foot in the pool.”
“[She’s an] amazing debate teacher,” Schaefer said.
“I used to be a really big writer too, and I got a minor in English, and so Mr. Johnson and Ms. Rodney were really supportive of that side too,” Madison said. “Mr. Johnson puts his entire heart and soul into journalism…and is doing really well with so little resources. Just being in the Echo for those two years opened so many doors for me, and pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, and it got me so many practical skills that I still use today.”
Madison also credited a board member of the Thespian Society, Chad Little, for pushing her harder. “He had some of the strictest guidelines and highest expectations and asked the most out of me…I felt like I was being challenged and pushed and I was rising to the challenge.”
As a teacher, Madison hopes to make an impact and connect with her students.
“So far, I really do think that I’m making an impact, at least a couple of students for each of my classes…I am their safe person, and that’s important to me,” Madison said.
This ECHO Podcast is introduced and outro’d and edited by print/podcast editor Margaret Korte.
Print/podcast editor Margaret Korte talks to long-term drama sub Trinity Madison.
Music is:
Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
“Beauty Flow” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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Margaret Korte–Print/Podcast EditorThis will be Margaret Korte’s second year on ECHO staff. She made several contributions while taking journalism class her freshman year. |
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