Emiline D. Hallowell, EdD, is a retired English teacher with more than 40 years of experience teaching at the middle and high school levels. Raised in a large family, Dr. Hallowell first discovered her passion for education by helping her younger siblings, and she was inspired to pursue teacher training by her aunt, who had built her own career as a teacher. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from The Pennsylvania State University in 1968 and began her teaching career in Catholic schools. She spent five years working with students in Catholic schools in Florida before relocating to Philadelphia, where she continued to teach in a parochial school setting for the next two years.
Dr. Hallowell left private schools for a position with the Centennial School District, where she would spend the next 33 years of her career. She taught at the middle school level before settling at Upper Dublin High School, where she taught English language arts and composition to 12th grade students. As a part of her commitment to her students and profession, Dr. Hallowell continued to pursue professional development opportunities throughout her tenure. In 2002, she completed her Doctor of Education in education curriculum at Temple University, an accomplishment that she considers a career highlight due to the time and effort she invested in attending school and the need to balance caring for her mother and grandfather during periods of illness. She was presented with a 2003 Dissertation Award for her doctoral research and had been active in curriculum development for the Centennial School District for some time before beginning her postgraduate studies.
In 2002, Dr. Hallowell retired from teaching full-time. She credits her professional success to the support of her professors and the administrators at the schools where she taught, particularly those who encouraged her and helped her with her dissertation. As an active professional, Dr. Hallowell was a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts, and during her schooling, she was a member of the Omicron Tau Theta Honor Society. In addition to teaching English, Dr. Hallowell also found success in real estate and as a cosmetology instructor. She recalls seeing an opportunity to make extra money by opening a salon rental space in a house that she was renovating at the time, which inspired her to get her cosmetology license.
Reflecting on her career, Dr. Hallowell considers her long-term involvement in both business and education to be a point of distinction. She attributes her ability to succeed in several different fields to the desire to care for others that she developed naturally as one of many siblings, and she feels that her ability to care for her family throughout her career was one of her greatest accomplishments. Her professional philosophy is “never give up,” and she advises others to look for motivation in those around them and to base their measures of success on their personal core values rather than to look for validation from others. In the coming years, Dr. Hallowell plans to continue to build her professional network and to seek a publisher for a children’s book that she is currently writing.