Nicole Graczewski ’24: Path Paved With Scholarships

Having earned more than 20 different scholarship awards in high school and college combined, Nicole Graczewski has a deep appreciation and sense of gratitude for giving back and the capacity it has to help others.

Such generosity, she said, gave life to her aspirations to teach.

The Keene State graduate (Elementary Education and Dance Education) is a full-time kindergarten teacher at Andover Elementary/Middle School in Andover, NH.

Nicole received three endowed Keene State scholarships as an undergraduate student: the Sandra E. Ellison ’67 Memorial Scholarship (three years), the Megna Family Endowed Scholarship (two years), and the Matthew T. Paul Resident Assistant Memorial Award (two years).

“It’s impossible to describe the full impact of the support I received,” Nicole said, “but being able to train my focus on my students and not worry about money was a major benefit of all the scholarships. I did not have to work as many hours at my part-time job and therefore had more time to dedicate to lesson planning, preparation, and my students.”

Nicole came to Keene State from East Windsor, CT; today, she lives in Goffstown, NH. She has a lengthy resume of student involvement at Keene State, including tour guide, office assistant, and member and recruitment chair for the Education Honor Society, Kappa Delta Pi. She enjoys baking, growing plants, boating, traveling, and learning everything she can “about the world around us.”

But she loves teaching most. It has been that way since f irst grade, when her New Year’s resolution was to become a teacher…not after college, but that year! “I’ve always liked school, mostly because my teachers made it fun. Now I get to make it fun for my students. I feel lucky to wake up excited to go to work.”

“Keene State encouraged me to be the teacher I wanted. I am nowhere near a textbook teacher. Dr. Darrell Hucks and Dr. Kim Bohannon helped me learn that it’s okay to be the ‘odd duck’ of teachers. While student teaching, and even now, we make messes in class, learn outside, and get a little crazy. Most importantly, the children are learning!”

How crazy? “Like writing letters and sight words in shaving cream, to setting up tents indoors.” She has found, she added, that taking an abstract approach to teaching gets more “buy-in” from students, even the youngest. “That moment…when you make a connection, when a student who might be struggling gets it…there’s nothing like that.”