Then and Now - Assumption High School

Generations of Assumption
–Laura Kremer Kline `97
Jessica Schellenberger `02, Suzette O’Bryan Schellenberger `68, and Melissa Schellenberger `89
1968
Suzette O’Bryan `68
When the Schellenberger family women made their way through the halls of Assumption
High School, each had a unique experience – after all, they were years apart in time and
the world was a very different place in the span of those years’ difference.
Suzette O’Bryan Schellenberger graduated in 1968 in the midst of the Vietnam War, the
assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and television shows like “The
Andy Griffith Show,” “The Lucy Show,” and “Bonanza.” Her oldest daughter Melissa came
through more than 20 years later with the class of 1989, experiencing the end of the Iran-
Iraq War, the first space flight after the Challenger tragedy, the dawn of computer “worms”
spreading through the Internet, and Michael Jackson’s designation as the “King of Pop.”
Most recently, younger daughter Jessica graduated in 2002, just months after the 9/11
attacks on America and subsequent war in Afghanistan, the first artificial heart transplant,
George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, and the premiere season of “American
Idol.” But amidst all of the societal changes that might have affected their high school
experiences, a few things remained constant.
All three women maintain that a strong academic foundation built in their years at AHS
is one of those things that never changed, although even their class schedules looked very
different. In 1968, daily class schedules were simple and repetitive with the same classes at
the same time every day. Suzette remembers how beneficial her typing class turned out to be.
“Mom made me take it against my will – it helped me all my life…Mom was right!” Melissa
experienced the start of modular scheduling with a different schedule each day and each class
assigned a different number of 20-minute mods. She remembers being transported beyond
the classroom walls in her journalism class with Mary Lee McCoy and French class with
Rosette Rosckes. She and Jessica were both transported, literally, out of the classroom on trips
to France with their French classes. Melissa’s Pre-Calculus and Calculus classes also stand
out, “not because of my math skills, but because Mrs. [Elaine] Salvo was an excellent teacher.
She just stands out as being exceptional. She really wanted you to learn and would go out
of her way to make sure that happened.” Jessica was part of the current block scheduling
with four 85-minute classes each day on a rotating basis. She is most grateful for all of her
Assumption theology classes. “I have come to really appreciate what those classes taught me,
the unique education I was afforded. All of our religion classes really taught us to be strong
women and to be proud of who we were and who we were becoming. So many girls do not
have the opportunity to blossom in such a caring environment.”
8 Assumption Magazine Spring 2011