photo by Troy Boman Sheryl Lundwall instructs students in her reading class Thursday morning. Lundwall is a teacher at Tooele High School and a homebound teacher for the school district.

by Sarah Miley

STAFF WRITER

It is often said that a person's past shapes who they become. For Sheryl Lundwall, becoming a foster parent and educator were decisions she made based on her experiences growing up.

Lundwall grew up in foster care and knew that at some point in her life she wanted to become a foster parent. She is the only one of seven in her biological family who started or completed any post-high school education. Four of the seven completed high school. Her father dropped out in the sixth-grade and her mother in the ninth-grade. Because of that she is dedicated to education.

"I wanted to be a teacher since I was nine years old," she said. "I knew that's what I wanted to do and when the time was right I could achieve my own education and be a teacher. I love teaching and I love the students."

Lundwall is a special education teacher at Tooele High School. She has taught for 18 years, six of which have been at Tooele High. She teaches English to mostly ninth graders, but also to students up to the 12th grade. In addition to those responsibilities, she is a homebound teacher for the school district. As part of this job, Lundwall visits students who, for whatever reason, medical or family, cannot attend school. She visits and helps them to ensure they can graduate.

Her work requires her to visit students' homes after school hours and sometimes requires her to work at the students' convenience, which at times can fall on Saturdays. She visits with the students a few times a week. She currently has seven students who she homebound teaches. She has been doing this for three years and says her motivation is to help the students graduate.

"I see the importance of education, and without that opportunity it just closes the doors for so many of them if they're not able to achieve their education," she said. "That's my primary motivation."

She mentioned one student who she has taught homebound for almost three years now and she's so excited because he's going to graduate this year.

"It is really about helping them to reach their potential, and even though medical situations or family situations prevent them from being at school we want them to still achieve their personal dream," she said.

In addition to her responsibilities at school and as a homebound teacher, she has a demanding family life as well. Lundwall and her husband, Rod, have 13 children. Six are biological and are grown now. About seven years ago, she and her husband became foster parents.

"When our older children were starting to leave home, we became foster parents," she said.

Since that time, they have adopted five of their foster children and they currently have two children in foster care. There are seven children -- two 9-year-olds, two 7-year-olds, two 5-year-olds, and an almost 3-year-old -- currently at home.

"It's a little more than we had anticipated taking on, but you take what life hands you and you run with it," she said.

She added, they also have nine grandchildren, so family get-togethers are quite an event.

While juggling a career and keeping a family together, Lundwall recently just finished her master's degree in special education from Grand Canyon University.

"I believe in being a lifelong learner, so I enjoyed the intellectual pursuit," she said, adding she didn't enjoy the late nights and early mornings to write papers.

She considered going to Utah State University since she already had several hours toward her master's there, but decided to do it online so she could take care of her young children.

"I decided to do it online when we had so many young ones at home, so I could literally get up at 3 or 4 in the morning if I needed to," she said. "You do what you do and you make it work."

Lundwall credits the support she gets from her husband to making a busy life work. She and her husband trade off, meaning some days if she stays late at school, then he does the children pick-up. They get up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready for the day and have all the children ready for school.

"You just take it a day at a time," she said.

She added schedules can get quite hectic, with soccer games and with foster children there are visitation issues.

"That's really what it's all about is every day doing the best you can," she said.

While Lundwall said she doesn't see herself as extraordinary others may disagree.

"My wife deserves most of the credit for any of the good we have done," Rod said.

swest@tooeletranscript.com