Allyson Durney: Government Teacher, Bellefonte Area High School

Teaching for 13 years, 9 of which were at Bellefonte Area High School, government teacher Mrs. Allyson Durney feels that she “got really lucky - I've always wanted to be a teacher and I absolutely love what I do.”

Growing up in a family where both parents were teachers, Mrs. Durney and her sister followed in their footsteps and both became teachers as well. 

“I had my dad as a teacher in eighth grade. It was an interesting experience but taught me the difference from ‘getting’ grades to ‘earning’ them. The grading scale was 93% for an A and I had a 92.4%. When I asked him to round it up, he asked me if I did enough to earn an A (I hadn't, I was counting on an A because he was my dad!).  That taught me a lesson that I still think of today as a teacher.” 

Mrs. Durney spent a brief period of time in her life with hopes of being an astronomer until she realized that she needed to excel in math and science.  

“I've always wanted to be a teacher. I love that I have a career where I can make a direct and lasting impact in the life of a student and I can hopefully help them to better understand the world around them.” 

Mrs. Durney finds inspiration to continue teaching through the differences and similarities she sees within her students. It is through these differences that she finds the most valuable lessons.

“Engaging in civil discourse and having a rich civic education are very important to our world and I am very fortunate that I can help students learn at BAHS,” she said. 

Graduating from college, Mrs. Durney thought that high school would be the only place that she would be happy teaching. However, in her first teaching position she taught seventh grade for four years at the Huntington Area Middle School. As much as she enjoyed middle school, she can’t imagine teaching anything else now. 

“Middle School presents its own challenges but I absolutely loved it. Now, after teaching all levels, but mostly seniors, during my tenure at BAHS, I couldn't imagine teaching anything else.” 

Aside from teaching, Durney enjoys trivia, cooking, reading, to travel and many other things.  

*By David Galchenko, junior at BAHS