Students often stop by and catch up with teacher Adam Janosko, 30, in the Shady Side Academy English office.
In addition to his duties as an English literature and composition instructor, the O'Hara native enjoys coaching track and organizing a local camp.
Janosko, a 2004 graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School, returned to Pittsburgh three years ago and immediately became involved in the community.
He took over the duties of setting up the Aspinwall-Blawnox Church Camp two years ago. The faith-based, week away from home has been a part of summertime for local children ages 10 to 17 for 40 years.
Janosko has been going to Laurel Highlands State Park with the group for 20 years, first as a camper, then graduating to counselor, and now as the man in charge.
“It's one of the biggest accomplishments of my life: carrying on this tradition,” Janosko says.
And the young man has accomplished a lot already. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he taught English at Ballou Senior High School in Washington, D.C. He was part of Teach for America.
Janosko then moved to work at a rural boarding school in Maine. He followed that with a year in Kenya with a Fulbright Scholarship and then a year in the South Bronx working at a public charter school.
“(Teaching has) taken me all over the world. I carry all those experiences with me when I teach,” he says.
Upon coming back to Pittsburgh, Janosko worked to fill in for a teacher who was on sabbatical for the 2013-14 school year at Shady Side Academy.
The next year he substituted at Winchester Thurston before returning to Shady Side Academy.
Everywhere Janosko worked, he taught English — sometimes as a second language, like during his time in Africa.
“I was always between science and English,” he says. “I don't remember a time when I didn't like reading.”
Janosko also enjoys being outside and participating in and coaching sports
“Sports teach us things that being in the classroom can't,” Janosko says. They help kids meet new people, and teach the value of teamwork, he says.
“They discover hidden talents,” he says. “It's really a cool by-product of having athletics in the school.”
Hiking is an activity Adam and his wife, Abby, enjoy.
Janosko, who spent a decade away, says he is happy to be back in Pittsburgh.
“It's a city that's tough to leave,” he says. “I love the culture of the city. You can leave and come home. Pittsburgh is special in that way.”
Sharon Drake is a freelance writer for the Tribune-Review
