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Reflecting back with Johnson: May 2019

VOL. 31 NO. 5

Superintendent shares passion for education, looks forward to retirement

PHOTO CONNOR LAWLESS

Superintendent Christine Johnson has always valued education. After she graduated high school, she knew she wanted to be a teacher, but had no way to pay for college. For 10 years, Johnson worked for various companies while taking night classes.

ELISSA GORMAN & MAGGIE DEL RE Editors-in-Chief

After 32 years in public education and with retirement approaching at the end of the year, Superintendent Christine Johnson is still brimming with a deep-rooted passion for education and a genuine curiosity for the world around her.

She speaks of her time serving public education with excitement and joy, bouncing from topic to topic and continuing to look forward to continuing her own education in the future. “I am so excited about taking classes for the joy of learning,” Johnson said. “I’ve been doing a lot of research on universities around this area that offer experiences for professionals that are retiring and just

want to experience the love of learning.” Now, Johnson is looking into classes on topics ranging from Boston architecture, to memoir writing to history. However, as a young adult, education at the university level was not as accessible to Johnson because of the cost. After graduating high school in 1975, Johnson immediately entered the workforce. Her dream was to be a teacher, so

for 10 years she attended night classes after her day job. “It was an interesting pathway, which I probably wouldn’t actually recommend for folks,” Johnson said. “But I think what it says is that if you have a dream, and you have a goal, you are committed to that goal and you’re committed to the dream and you do what it takes to make that happen.” While taking night classes, Johnson said her “professional career really took off.” Some of the positions she remembers most fondly include being the original coordinator for Seagate Technology and working for a start-up company called DragonSoft. “We would travel to New York a couple times a year to have Dim Sum and meet with the Chinese who were funding our startup organization [DragonSoft], and that was a hoot,” Johnson said. “But then, I finally said, ‘I just really want to finish my bachelor’s degree. I really want to teach; I think I have something to offer.’” Johnson inherited her passion for education from her father, who enlisted in the Navy at 15 years old. “After everything he went through, he went back [to school],” Johnson said. “He always told me was ‘It doesn’t matter what else you do. Education is the most important.’ So I took that to heart and learned that it doesn’t matter how long it takes, you stay the course.” Johnson quit her job and started taking classes full-time at a Seventh-Day Adventist school which is no longer in operation, Framingham State University and Salem State University to complete her business education certification. She got her masters degree from Northeastern shortly after.

‘Johnson’ continued on p. 2

Complexity of eating disorders impacts community MAGGIE DEL RE, ELISSA GORMAN & NATALIE SADEK Editors-in-Chief & Online Editor

Algonquin alumna Dayna Altman speaks with a bubbly personality and a confident smile -- even when the topic is her difficult experiences with eating disorders. “I never feel like myself more than when I’m sharing,” Altman said. Altman works at Girls. Inc in Lynn as their Substance Use Prevention Coordinator. According to Altman, a big part of her goal there is “to inspire our next generation to feel good about themselves and how they look.” But when Altman was growing up, she wasn’t confident with

how she looked or who she was, nosed with an “Otherwise Specisimilar to the 44 percent of Al- fied Food and Eating Disorder” gonquin students who aren’t (OSFED) during her first year comfortable and happy with of college. According to Litheir current weight according censed Registered Dietician Amy to a Harbinger Gardner, OSFED is survey of 228 the biggest category students March of eating disorders. 26 to April 11 “That’s when of students have through Google people just don’t fit Forms. nicely into a categostruggled with Over time, ry,” Gardner said. disordered Altman’s lack feeding behaviors Other common of confidence types of eating disorAccording to a Harbinger slowly develders include anorexsurvey of 228 students oped into an ia, bulimia and bingefrom March 26 to April 11 eating disorder. eating disorder. through Google Forms “I’m 26 and Anorexia, someI think I strugtimes called anorexia gled with an eating disorder for nervosa, causes people to obsess a really long time,” Altman said. about weight and what they eat “I can remember even in early through restrictive diets and exelementary school always feeling cessive exercise. Bulimia is charnot good enough, and just really acterized by binging, or eating sad.” large amounts quickly, followed Altman was formally diag- by methods to avoid weight gain,

38%

such as purging, laxative abuse or fasting. Binge eating disorder is when individuals frequently consume unusually large amounts of food quickly, and feel that the behavior is out of control. Six percent of Algonquin students report that they have been formally diagnosed with an eating disorder, and 38 percent of students have struggled with disordered feeding behaviors on their own, without a diagnosis. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), at least 30 million Americans of all ages and genders struggle with an eating disorder. According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), one in three people struggling with an eating disorder is a male, and disordered feeding behaviors are nearly as common in men and women.

GRAPHIC LEANNE HART

Treatment allowed Altman to be able to largely overcome her eating disorder, but it was no easy journey to get there, and sometimes she still finds herself tempted to restrict her eating. “I think it’s always going to live with me to some extent to either compare [myself to others], or think about calories, but I’m in such a different place than I once was,” Altman said.

‘Eating Disorders’

continued p. 12