Jeff Shogren couldn't wait to surprise his favorite teacher with a new computer tablet. But to Karen Flaherty, having Shogren in her class was the real gift.
Shogren, a former Coon Rapids High School student now enrolled in the Anoka-Hennepin district's Bridges program, entered Dell Outlet's national teacher appreciation contest, writing about his "favorite teacher," Flaherty.
That he wrote the winning essay and won two Dell XPS tablets — one for him and one for Flaherty — hardly begins to tell the story of Jeff's gift.
"We want our students to be successful," said Flaherty, who has been a vocational coordinator for 13 years and has worked with special education kids a total of 19 years. "Jeff is a real success story."
Shogren describes himself as "learning disabled." He said his birth mother tried to hide her pregnancy and starved herself. He says he doesn't know much about her; she died when he was little.
Jeff and his siblings grew up in foster care in Ramsey County before he and two brothers were adopted by Randy and Mary Shogren, Randy Shogren said. Jeff was 8 when he left foster care. He and his younger brother, Thomas, now 13, still live with Randy, a night maintenance worker, and Mary, who works at Medtronic.
He's happy and remarkably well-adjusted, considering how life started. He loves sports — especially soccer and softball — and has played for adaptive teams that have won state tournaments, his dad says. He likes to hunt, fish and camp, enjoys Twins games, loves working with his hands. He's personable — so much so that he's earned 5 percent-off gift cards at his job at a Target store "from customers, for doing so well," said Flaherty.
He's worked the cash register at Target, cleaned the staff lounge and worked as a cart attendant. He's observant. He knows that one co-worker can't function without her coffee in the morning and that another eats only chunky peanut butter.
