Valerie Kibler always wanted to be a teacher, but she never had any desire to teach writing. One day, when her mother, Joan Penton, picked her up from nursery school, she learned that three-year-old Kibler had gotten in trouble by helping another kid color.

“When Valerie got in the car, she told me that she had to sit in ‘The Chair’ and she told me what it was for,” Penton said. “Some time lapsed…and she said ‘I know what I want to do when I grow up.’ And I said ‘what do you want to do, honey?’ and she said ‘I want to be a teacher.’ ‘Oh really, why do you want to be a teacher?’ She said ‘so I can tell the other kids what to do.’ That’s stuck with me since the day she said it. It seems like just yesterday.”

Her sister, Vicky Wetzel also saw teaching as a natural fit for Kibler.

“She always ‘bossed’ me since she was older and always wanted to play school. She was destined to be a teacher,” Wetzel said.

But Kibler never thought she’d teach English or Journalism. And what’s more, she hardly expected a national journalism adviser award in her career. But it happened. On Sept 9, Kibler received a phone call from Rich Holden, executive director of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, delivering the news: she had been named the 2010 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Teacher of the Year.

Kibler has been teaching for twenty-three years. Her accomplishments with the Newsstreak at Harrisonburg High School are something she is particularly proud of. When she learned she has been named DJNFTOY, she was excited for herself, but she also recognized the hard work of her students. When she announced to her journalism classes that she had won, she thanked them for their effort that helped get her to this point.

“She always talks about what good kids she has this year. She says every year they get better and better,” Bobby Kibler, her husband, said.

Every recipient of the DJNFTOY has a sort of platform to use during multiple speaking engagements throughout the year. Valerie’s is every person has a story, a concept created by former Editor-in-Chief Britt Conley and practiced in Newsstreak. And Valerie’s back story is no exception to the rule.

Valerie Kibler was adopted by Joan and Joe Penton in June of 1967, five months after she was born. Soon, the Pentons had another daughter, Vicky. The two girls grew up as virtual twins, though Valerie knew from a young age that she was adopted.

“She used the word adoption and adopted in her vocabulary. And we tried to explain to her at a young age what that meant. And she came to like it and she used to tell people that ‘I’m adopted’ and ‘mommy and daddy came along and they wanted a baby’,” Joan Penton said.

When the girls were 12 and 13, the Pentons moved from McLean, Virginia to a farm in the Shenandoah Valley. There, the girls attended Stonewall Jackson High School, where they were heavily involved in many extracurricular activities from 4-H to SCA to sports.

“We were pretty competitive with each other. We both ran for student council and got elected. I was treasurer my ninth grade year and the same year she was secretary her tenth grade year. Then we progressed up the ladder serving in a higher office each year,” Wetzel said.

Valerie attended Virginia Tech, where she majored in English. When she was a junior, her parents divorced and her father remarried Marian. Valerie continued to remain close with both parents.

When she graduated, she got a teaching job at Marion High School in Marion, Virginia.

“She was always focused on teaching and always very much concerned about her students,” Marian said.
Valerie learned to juggle multiple roles. She was an English teacher, a volleyball coach, the SCA sponsor and a journalism teacher.

“My principal in Marion told me if I became the adviser for the paper, he’d give me a classroom,” Valerie said. She had never had any journalistic training, so to make herself an apt teacher, she attended as many seminars and conventions as she could. She realized the importance of letting students have power in the paper.

“In most cases, kids know a whole lot more than I do about what we are doing in journalism,” Valerie said.
“Learning that that was okay was a hard thing to do.”

During this time, Valerie sought out her birth mother, Brenda Giannino. She contacted her through Social Services to ask her about a possible genetic medical condition. The two have kept contact and formed a relationship over the years.

“She and her boyfriend, now husband, had driven out to California and we met at the coast in San Diego. And I’ve been to her house in Virginia and I went to her wedding,” Giannino said.

Around the same time, her biological sister Lisa was also finding their birth mother, who put the two of them in contact. They started a friendship by phone. A few months later, Valerie drove up to Boston to meet her sister face to face.

“I was very nervous. We had talked on the phone a couple times, but it’s hard to establish a relationship over the phone. When we met, we were both nervous, I’m sure. It’s hard to recall. We hit it off really well and found we had a lot of similarities and we get along really well,” Burns said. The two continue to keep a correspondence and visit when they can.

In 1998, Valerie moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia to teach at Harrisonburg High School. Under her guidance The Newsstreak has progressed into a much bigger production. Instead of an eight page paper, it features a 20 page broadsheet. The staff has exploded from eight members to 54.

“We’ve gone from minimal ideas and a tiny staff to getting comments that we really look professional,” Kibler continued.

After all the countless hours of work on the paper and large amount of effort put into the paper, she really tries to keep work and home separate. “Although Bobby is incredibly supportive of everything I do, I think it’s important to make sure there is time at home that doesn’t revolve around school,” Kibler said. He places the same importance in family that she does.

“If there’s one person I wish could be here to see her get this award, it would be her father,” Bobby said. “He was always so proud of everything she did, but especially her work with the school newspaper.”

When Kibler learned about winning the DJNFTOY, she called her family and emailed them the press release.

“I was unaware of all she had been involved in and was totally impressed by all of the accomplishments that she has had over the course of her teaching career,” Valerie’s older sister Lisa Burns said.

Still, Kibler gives credit to the kids. In the end, she believes that journalism teaches young adults not only writing skills, but an applicable set of real-world knowledge. She believes students learn teamwork, critical thinking skills, respect, and how to get along with others, even under deadline.

“Some of the best kids I have had weren’t necessarily good writers, but they worked hard. Everyone here has a place and wants to be part of the team,” Kibler said. “You realize that every person does have a story.”