Elevate Ep 57: Jennifer Tyrrell, Principal of Lyons Township High School, District 204

Jason (0:02)

Welcome to The Elevate Podcast, where every leader has a story. We bring you conversations with influential leaders who are shaping our local communities. Hear about their path to leadership and experiences that define them, and how they're driving meaningful impact today.

Hey, everybody, Jason Ulm here with another episode of The Elevate Powered by Braden Podcast. And as you can see, we're not in our Fisher Studio. We're actually on location up in Greater Chicagoland area. Having an awful lot of fun with this series and talking with for-profits, nonprofits, higher ed, and also K through 12 And sometimes I think the K through 12 is the best opportunity to have some cool conversations. But I'm with a new friend, Jen, welcome to the show.

Jennifer Tyrrell (0:43)

Thank you so much, Jason. Happy to be with you.

Jason (0:45)

All right. So let's set the stage first. Where are we sitting and what's your current role?

Jennifer Tyrrell (0:50)

Awesome. Well, I'm happy to be here with you today. We're at Lyons Township High School in Western Springs, Illinois. We're actually a two-campus high school, one school within our district. We are at our south campus in Western Springs right now. Our north campus is in LaGrange, and we're an awesome system. We serve 11 different communities, middle, western suburbs of Chicago. We are a comprehensive secondary school and serve about 3,800 total students.

Jason (1:18)

Wow.

Jennifer Tyrrell (1:19)

Love that.

Jason (1:19)

I know we'll talk more about that. Very, very cool story, but it's not where you started.

So where are you from, Rachel? Yeah.

Jennifer Tyrrell (1:25)

So I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, Payless Heights. I went to Stagg High School. So I was there from the time I was in about sixth grade. I went to Stagg and that was actually my first job as well, was at the high school that I went to.

Jason (1:38)

Now, wait, it's okay. So you can't just drop it off there. You got to ask the question. So Stagg High School, first job, what was the first job while you were in high school? What were you doing?

Jennifer Tyrrell (1:47)

No, actually I had many different jobs in high school, but that was my first job in education.

And actually, funny story about that, I thought for sure I was going to be a college softball coach. So growing up, I was an Abbott softball player. It was all I wanted to do.

Ended up playing Division I softball at Western Illinois.

I stayed there after I finished playing for a couple of years when I got my master's degree. And I decided when I was at Western that maybe coaching college wasn't for me because I'm really picky about where I want to live. And I knew I wanted to return back to the suburbs. So I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in Macomb at Western Illinois and my sister called me and she said, Jen, you've got to apply. There's a PE teaching job at Stag. So back in the early 2000s, I didn't have a computer. I ran to the computer lab, submitted the application and hours later had a call for an interview, drove home the next day, interviewed, came back to Macomb, returned for a final round interview. I was actually going to Vegas that weekend, landed in Vegas and got a call from my former boss that I landed my first teaching job at ISWASPA too.

Jason (2:52)

Gosh, that's crazy.

Jennifer Tyrrell (2:53)

That's awesome.

Jason (2:54)

All right. So high school was Philip's softball.

Jennifer Tyrrell (2:56)

It was.

Jason (2:57)

And so which position?

Jennifer Tyrrell (2:59)

Second base.

Jason (3:00)

Second base. All right. And then going to college, why choose Western?

Jennifer Tyrrell (3:04)

Yeah, I had a couple of different schools that were looking at me for softball. I knew I wanted to play softball. I honestly wasn't sure what I wanted to major in. I knew I wanted to major in something that was kind of close to coaching. And so I looked at University of Illinois, Chicago, Western, and Illinois State, and I ended up going to Western, and it was an amazing experience for me.

Jason (3:23)

Gotcha. All right. So four years there, what degree did you graduate with?

Jennifer Tyrrell (3:27)

Physical education with a health ed minor.

Jason (3:29)

Okay. Gotcha. All right. So coming out, you didn't maybe know what you wanted to do, but a friend called.

Jennifer Tyrrell (3:36)

Yeah.

Jason (3:36)

Today, there's your sister.

Jennifer Tyrrell (3:37)

My sister, yeah.

Jason (3:38)

Sister called.

Jennifer Tyrrell (3:39)

All right.

Jason (3:39)