This week’s Portage Life in the Spotlight is Will Fortenberry, a first year teacher at Portage High School and a soccer coach for the school.
Fortenberry is the oldest of four children, his father and mother both worked hard to see their children succeed.
“My parents are my biggest role models and if it was not for them, I would not be the person I am today,” he said.
Will is the oldest of 4 children. He is a graduate of Portage High School where he graduated with honors. He attended Calumet College for one year before transferring to Indiana University Northwest, where he graduated with a degree in Secondary Education. He considered going into the law enforcement field but settled on education. He was hired at Portage High School where he teaches social studies and is an assistant coach for boys soccer.
“It [education] was something I always wanted to do since middle school,” Fortenberry said. “Family is very important to me and with law enforcement, a family life is not as desirable as it is in education.”
Fortenberry has been coaching soccer for five years, starting when he was in college. He currently is the assistant coach for the boys varsity team at the high school.
“It is fun, the seniors now were in eighth grade when I started coaching. It is a little different now, the new guys coming in know me only as a coach, not as a player.”
Being both a teacher and a coach, Fortenberry gets to see students in two different lights throughout the day.
“I love coaching and I love teaching, they go hand in hand with each other.”
As a student from Portage, Fortenberry now works with some of the teachers that he was taught by, but made it clear that it is different than people would think.
“A lot of people would think, you are working with a lot of your old teachers,” Fortenberry said. “There are still some former teachers and it is different to see them in a working manner.”
Portage High School has made a lasting impact on Fortenberry, who said that he knew he always wanted to teach at Portage.
“I have always wanted to teach in Portage,” Fortenberry said. “I would teach anywhere, but I love it here.”
Last week, the State of Indiana released its grades of schools within the state. Portage High School is one of the schools that received "A" grades.
“It makes you very proud, there is really nothing else besides pride,” Fortenberry said. “It is a lot of time and effort and people do not realize how much teachers put into it to get something like that. It is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. When you go home, you don’t just sit down, there is always something to do. You are trying to make it the best for the kids.”
As a lifelong resident of Portage, Fortenberry is amazed by the diversity of culture in the community and thinks it will make Portage better off overall.
“I like the way Portage is going, the difference in the culture is amazing,” he added. “We are getting more and more diverse, I think the more different we are, the better we can be. If people can get along together, I mean when you go to college there are going to be people from all over and from all across the world and if your city is like that, how could that be a bad thing?”
Portage is proud to have teachers coming to their schools that are dedicated to the profession and Will Fortenberry is most definitely a Portage Life in the Spotlight.