Love, Mrs. Euker

Susan Cunningham Euker was born and raised in Baltimore Maryland. She attended Towson High School, received her B.A. degree in Health and Physical Education from Gettysburg College, graduating with the Frank Kramer Education Award, and earned her M.S. in Health Science from Towson University. Over the years, she has taught state certification courses for high school teachers in sexuality education through Loyola and Towson Universities, and has been a conference lecturer on motivational health education techniques at Salisbury University and McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College). Her op-ed pieces have appeared in The Baltimore Sun as well as the Los Angeles Times, and her short stories have been published in Readers' Digest, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Heart at Work. She has also written and reviewed curriculum for high school health education and system wide sexual harassment for the Baltimore County Board of Education. Euker received the Stevenson University Favorite Teacher Award, (formerly Villa Julie College), the Hereford High School Harbinger senior class dedication, the WBAL Television Class Act Award for outstanding teaching and service, the Simon A. McNeely Health Education Award, presented by the Maryland Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (MAHPERD) professional organization, and the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Teaching Award. She was also a Walt Disney American Teacher of the Year Award nominee. Euker is now retired from full-time teaching, but often substitutes at several local high schools. She agrees with the 13thcentury Persian poet Rumi, who wrote, "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I want to change myself." She lives in Bel Air, Maryland near her three children and six grandchildren.