All across the world and here at home in St. Cloud, we are 742 PROUD of district alumni!
Current Tech High School Principal Charlie Eisenreich attended St. Cloud State University after graduating from Tech in 1982. After signing as a free agent with the Kansas City Royals baseball team and playing in the minor leagues for one year, he found his way back to St. Cloud to complete his teaching degree. By 1988, Eisenreich was teaching at Tech High School where he’d walked the halls as a student. He eventually finished his Master’s of Education Degree while teaching and coaching soccer, baseball and hockey. By 1998, he became the assistant principal at Tech and later became principal. (As well as serving as Apollo High School’s principal.)
“It’s [working at Tech] been a wonderful experience so far,” describes Eisenreich. “I enjoyed my time as a student and a teacher. There is a sense of pride returning to the place you started from.”
Jim Eisenreich, Charlie’s brother, also attended Tech and SCSU and went on to play baseball. In 1980, the Minnesota Twins baseball team drafted Jim.
“I remember playing in the opening game of the Metrodome in 1982,” he reflects.
It was shortly thereafter that he was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome (TS). He went back to finish college, and then played for the Kansas City Royals for six years, the Philadelphia Phillies for four years, and then on to the Florida Marlins, where he became a 1997 World Series Champion with the club. He finished his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After retiring from Major League Baseball, he started a charity foundation for TS. The Jim Eisenreich Foundation for Children with Tourette Syndrome has been his passion. Jim travels the country speaking about TS. The Kansas City foundation helps raise awareness of TS as well as assists with referrals, resources and doctors who treat the disorder.
“The best thing I can do to help families is to make them aware and have a place [for them] to go,” he says.
Amy Lindberg Meyer, an Apollo High School graduate of 2005, has a passion for working with children. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor’s Degree in Child Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood and Special Education Early Childhood, she found her niche. It was while in college that she discovered her love of working with children with special needs. She started volunteering at Fraser, a provider of autism, mental health and developmental disabilities services for adults and children. She knew right away what she wanted to do—teaching children with special needs.
“I’ve always known I wanted to work with children,” says Meyer. “I had looked into the medical route in high school with internships and then went the educational routed when I got to college.”
Currently, Meyer works for Minneapolis Public Schools as an early childhood special education teacher. She’s been there the last six years. Her primary focus is children ages 3-5. A lot of her time is spent at preschools, daycares or homes working with kids one-on-one or with families.
“Every day is different,” explains Meyer. “There is never a dull moment … Every spring you can see the growth of the kids looking back at photos and documents with parents. You really get a sense of achievement. Every day is a great success.”
Dr. Andrea Dooley Thompson graduated in 2002 from Tech.
“It’s a great honor to go to a school that is so proud of their [students and teachers] school,” says Thompson.
After graduating, Thompson moved on to MIT (Massachusettes Institute of Technology) where she majored in chemical engineering. She went on to the University of Michigan for medical school where she completed her eight-year program in chemical biology. Thompson is in her second year of residency in cardiology with three years remaining in lab research. Her current work in cardiology is working with patients with a critical illness, particularly cardiomyopathy, and helping transition them into an outpatient scenario.
Thompson acknowledges the impact of her work. “It’s a part of medicine when they [patients] are sick and the minute-to-minute and second-to-second decisions that need to be made are critical.”
Her intrigue with cardiology stemmed from her time in chemical engineering at MIT. She likes the physiology and the break down of how the heart works. As time goes by, she hopes to be on the academic side of medicine. She wants to teach the next generation.
Whether it is the famous Fahnhorst brothers, Jim and Keith, who both went on to play for the San Francisco 49ers, Stephen Sommers, a Hollywood movie director; Laura Provinzino, an United States Assistant Attorney; Alise Post, silver medal Olympian; Halima Aden, international fashion model, or countless other 742 success stories, each alum carries a bit of St. Cloud Area School District pride across the world.
742 PROUD is global.
Read more about District 742 alumni on the Alumni Success Stories page and watch the video.