Icelandic-born woman finds home in Palmer

Real people

PALMER — Asdis Derouen was born in Reykjavik with Icelandic blood in her veins. As a teen-ager, she graduated from an alternative school in Wasilla. But she has no doubt about where her friends, home and true alma mater are — Palmer.

Derouen, born Asdis Sigurdardottir, came to Alaska from Iceland with her mother and sister when she was 2 years old. After spending a few years in Soldotna, the family moved to Palmer, where, from fourth grade through her freshman year, Derouen attended public school.

Ten years after graduating from high school, she is back at Swanson Elementary, teaching kindergarten in what she calls her second home. Her real home, where she lives with her husband and son, is just a block away from Swanson, across the street from her sister and a block and a half away from where Derouen herself grew up.

Even the house in which she now lives has its history — it once belonged to the family of a boy with whom she went to school at Swanson and Sherrod.

"I used to come over here and play when I was a kid," Derouen said.

Derouen said she loves the small-town feeling of Palmer and the familiarity of the buildings and people.

"Just knowing every nook and cranny is really great," she said.

This past winter, Derouen had a typical Palmer experience — she ran into an old friend at Carrs.

"Because, you know, that's the meeting place," she joked.

The former classmate told Derouen she was beginning to plan the 10-year reunion for the Palmer High Class of 1991. Despite the fact that Derouen didn't officially graduate with that class, she said she immediately volunteered to help.

"I never had any doubts," she said. "I was so excited to see everybody."

As she worked on the planning committee and sorted through old high school yearbooks, she noticed her own absence in many of the photos and realized what she had missed when she dropped out of school at the end of her freshman year at Palmer High.

"I don't know what happened," she said. "It was that time when you think you know the world, and you don't."

For a year and a half while her friends went to school during the day and did homework at night, she did nothing, Derouen said. Then she began talking with former classmates.

"They were saying, ‘Yeah, we're graduating next May,'" she recalled. "It was an eye opener."

With less than 18 months until her class was scheduled to receive diplomas, Derouen enrolled in the alternative program that would eventually be Burchell High School. It was a small group — around 35 students — in a room at Cottonwood Creek Center in Wasilla. And it was exactly what Derouen needed.

"I loved it," she said. "I am just so thankful for the alternative school."

Doubling her efforts, she managed to complete all her required credits in time to graduate on schedule in 1991. The alternative program had since moved to Colony High School, and her graduation ceremony was held in the new building's gymnasium — a week or so ahead of Palmer High's graduation.

"I beat you guys by a week," she likes to joke to her Palmer classmates.

As a part of the program, she had to work a minimum of three hours a day. Since she didn't have a job, Derouen volunteered in a first-grade classroom at Swanson Elementary.

Those three hours a day would end up changing the course of her life. She discovered her passion — teaching. Her energy and enthusiasm seemed a perfect match for the organized chaos that makes up kindergarten.

"I love kids. I love to work with them. I love to learn from them. I love to see how they see the world," she said. "This is the type of job you can go to and forget all your problems. These kids can make a bad day great. They keep me happy."

One of her favorite classroom activities is cooking. From bread and lasagna to rocket ships made out of pineapple and whipped cream, the projects teach math, measuring and independence, Derouen said.

She said some of her former teachers inspired these kinds of hands-on activities. Derouen said she can still vividly remember the things she did and learned in sixth grade at Sherrod. Her teacher, Bart Harmeling, seemed to be able to connect with the students. He took them on class excursions to nearby ponds and taught them how to love learning.

When Derouen and her classmate prepared to move on to junior high, the teacher gave each of them a 50-cent piece.

"I still have mine," Derouen said. "That's not just a 50-cent piece; it's half my education." Today, Derouen teaches in the same school system as Harmeling, but she said she still finds it difficult to call him "Bart" instead of "Mr. Harmeling."

Derouen frequently comes across these types of connections to her past in Palmer. Last year, she taught the daughter of two of her former classmates.

"She used to always say, ‘I know you. Your name is Asdis. You went to school with my mom and dad,'" Derouen said.

Last month, Derouen met many more children of former classmates as the Palmer High Class of 1991 celebrated its 10-year reunion. After months of planning, Derouen admits she was a little nervous as she prepared to walk into the room that first day to see old friends she hadn't seen in as long as a decade. But once she was there, she knew she was home.

"Even as time goes by, friendship always remains," she said. "I think that is something we have special to our class."