1985 Graduate Reflects on Teaching Stops in Taiwan, Texas, Alaska, and More
Former BV Presidential Fellow now leading school-to-work program in Shenandoah
In year five of retirement, Brenda (McClure) Dailey is busy as ever, a Beaver educator working in career that illustrates the benefits of a liberal arts education.
“I teach in our iJag (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates) program. This is our first year and we’re presenting to the school board tonight,” she says, while closing in on the first quarter of her first year coordinating iJag for the Fremont-Mills Community School District. “We’re learning about ourselves, our study habits, what occupations might be of interest to us, and more.”
It’s a sea change in duty for the longtime kindergarten teacher. For this 1985 BV grad, that’s the tip of the iceberg, literally, as Dailey’s career has stretched from Taiwan to Texas to rural Alaska.
“I felt I had the strength to make decisions about my career with the possibilities to think outside the box. BVU gives you the tools and helps you make those decisions. I knew I could be successful.”
Brenda (McClure) Dailey, 1985 graduate
As a BVU student, Dailey was a Presidential Fellow, a wrestling cheerleader, and involved in intramurals and other organizations on campus. She traveled to Taiwan on a BV exchange program in 1983 and spent six months teaching English to residents of Taichung.
“Besides teaching swimming lessons, that was my first experience as a teacher,” she says. “I was 20 years old, and I taught people ages four to 80.”
The experience, an outgrowth of her Presidential Fellows activity, enabled Dailey to embrace the prospect of teaching in South Dallas, Tex., immediately following graduation.
“I was the minority in South Dallas,” she says while sharing fond memories. “I learned about being a minority. It was eye-opening for me and helped me to be aware and conscious of discrimination.”
Following three years in South Dallas, Dailey returned to Iowa to serve Lewis Central in Council Bluffs, teaching kindergarten through fourth grade. Following a five-year stint, she moved to Independence, Mo., where she worked and resided for two decades-plus until her retirement in 2018. She taught kindergarten as well as grades four, five, six, and Title I reading.
She and husband, Randy Dailey, then relocated to Shenandoah to be closer to their parents. Retirement for the teacher didn’t last long as she signed on to teach in the Kuspuk School District of Aniak, Alaska, a district encompassing 12,000 square miles in the western portion of “The Last Frontier.” Many of students’ families hunted and fished for their sustenance, harvesting moose, for example, and catching salmon. Dailey drove the “Ice Highway” on the Kuskokwim River many times.
“When teams flied in to play us in high school basketball, they’d stay in the school if there was a storm,” she says. “They might be there for two to three days. They’d stay in our classrooms, and we’d feed them.”
Temperatures occasionally dipped to 80 degrees below zero.
“It’s beautiful around Aniak,” she remembers. “The experience made my career more well-rounded.”
She returned to Iowa as the COVID-19 pandemic struck and finished her year preparing assignments for her students in Alaska, assignments delivered by hand by her principal.
She and Randy hope to return to Alaska someday. It won’t happen during this academic year, at least. Dailey is enjoying her most recent post-retirement stint working with high schoolers as the first iJag Specialist in the Fremont-Mills Community School District.
“Buena Vista gives people a positive feeling,” she explains while reflecting on a varied and rewarding vocation in education. “I felt I had the strength to make decisions about my career with the possibilities to think outside the box. BVU gives you the tools and helps you make those decisions. I knew I could be successful.”