Joliet Catholic Academy teacher encourages educators to foster passion in students

Joliet Catholic Academy teacher Jake Ziesmer said anyone interested in becoming an educator should pursue a field they are passionate about.

For Ziesmer, that’s physics and robotics. He most recently was involved in a project with a student who wanted to create a prosthetic hand for those in need, and the two plan to help other young engineers with similar projects.

Ziesmer has been a teacher at Joliet Catholic Academy for 12 years. He said he recommends that teachers seek to inspire their students.

“Like anything else, there’s a lot of ups and downs, but the chance to help people and give them opportunities to succeed at things important to them is my main motivation as a teacher and coach,” Ziesmer said.

Ziesmer said he was motivated to become a teacher because his parents are educators.

“It’s kind of always been in the family,” he said.

Ziesmer said his mother was a teacher and his father was a longtime principal in Joliet.

At Joliet Catholic Academy, Ziesmer mainly teaches physics and robotics, but he’s also taught biology and chemistry.

During Ziesmer’s 12 years in the profession, a lot has changed, including the technology he uses in the classroom. But he said he has embraced the changes that he calls inevitable.

“Kids change, technology changes,” Ziesmer said.

Besides Ziesmer’s work in the classroom, he’s also put in work elsewhere for JCA.

Ziesmer is an assistant coach for the varsity football team, a coach for the bass fishing team and a coach for the scholastic team.

“It’s just something that has been important to me over the past 12 years,” Ziesmer said of his involvement in the school’s many programs.

Ziesmer also has worked with student Alana Schertz, a junior at JCA, on using the school’s 3D printers to create prosthetic hands for those in need.

As result of that effort, Schertz and Ziesmer decided to work on a partnership with St. Raymond Grade School in Joliet to help produce more prosthetic hands and involve budding young engineers from that school, according to JCA.

Schertz was a student at St. Raymond Grade School and developed an interest in robotics there. She now will help students there like herself learn more about the field.

“It’s really full circle,” she said.

Schertz said Ziesmer does a good job of focusing on students’ interests, such as drones, coding or robotics, and incorporating them into the curriculum. She said Ziesmer makes sure each student is able to explore their own interests.

“He’s super on board with all of our special interests and just making it all happen,” Schertz said.

Ultimately, Ziesmer said, he’s a teacher because he wants to provide opportunities for people to follow their passions.

“It’s kind of my overall philosophy in the classroom at this point,” Ziesmer said.