Elgin High teacher lauded for reviving theater program

In her three years teaching at Elgin High School, Jessica Vaillancourt has revived the school's performing arts program from virtual nonexistence.

"It had been dormant for about a decade," said Vaillancourt, 30, of Elgin. "There were just not enough students per class to get the section to run. It stopped being offered. After 10 years, (students) didn't even know that there was an option to take acting courses. No teacher was really pushing to tell these students that they had this as an option."

For her efforts to rebuild the program, Vaillancourt has been named Illinois Outstanding Young Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Communication and Theatre Association, the state's largest professional group for theater, speech, debate and communications teachers.

She will receive the award at a banquet next Friday at ICTA's convention in Lisle.

"I was blown away, and I was so touched," Vaillancourt said about her reaction when she found out.

Vaillancourt directs and coaches Elgin High's speech and drama team, and she teaches drama, speech, debate, English, art, and yearbook.

Her colleagues, Elgin High Principal Jerry Cook, students, and one of her college mentors helped put together the nomination packet.

"Jessica single-handedly revitalized our (EHS) theater program, speech and debate classes, and speech team," former Elgin High divisional chair Effie Rouse wrote in her nomination letter. "Jessica not only teaches acting, speech and debate, but she helps colleagues address speaking and listening skills in art classes, print design classes and science classes."

It's Vaillancourt's first teaching job.

She said she was inspired to get her teaching certificate after moving to the community from Michigan to study theater at Elmhurst College, where she met her husband, Anthony Zoubek, an English teacher and speech and drama coach at Bartlett High School.

Zoubek himself won the Illinois Outstanding Young Teacher of the Year award in 2011.

Vaillancourt started volunteering as a speech coach at Bartlett High because she liked working with kids.

When she was brought on at Elgin High, Vaillancourt said she was encouraged to rebuild the theater program and started drumming up support and building relationships with students.

"We had just enough (students) to run two classes worth of acting," she said. "I knew it was about engaging my students, making learning fun, but there still had to be rigor in it."

Vaillancourt said while some students were eager, she really had to sell the program to get more students to consider theater as a profession.

"Some kids didn't even know they had the skill set in them, some didn't even know this was an option, others were just chomping at the bit and were so excited to have it," she said. "The kids had the best attitude ever, and they were willing to try any project I would throw at them."

Today, about 80 students are enrolled in theater courses.

Under Vaillancourt's coaching, an Elgin High speech student made it all the way to a state competition sectional - something that hasn't happened since 1974.

Vaillancourt also has revived the school's fall play production for the past three years.

This year, roughly 45 students will be performing "Pontypool," a zombie genre play based on an award-winning book by Tony Burgess.

"We are actually the second theater group, professional or academic, to get the rights to perform it," Vaillancourt said.