Out of high school, Pat Sovern wanted to become a teacher.
After being discouraged to follow that career path, she headed to Indiana University and was going to study physical therapy.
She, however, soon learned it wasn’t for her, so she went back to her original love.
She worked hard to pay her way through school and wound up being the first person in her family to go to college and earn a degree.
Sovern landed a job in education and recently retired after 25 years, spending most of that time in special education.
“The funny thing is I actually interviewed for other jobs. I never intended ever to go into special ed because I knew it was going to be difficult. I heard the burnout is high. Teachers normally don’t last this long,” the 59-year-old Brownstown woman said.
She, however, bucked that trend.
“I don’t think I chose special ed. I think it chose me,” she said.
“You try something over and over again and it’s not working, but then finally, ‘You know, I’m actually really good at this, the kids like me, they connect with me and obviously, I’m meant to do this,’” Sovern said. “After awhile, I was like, ‘Well, do I really want to start over and do something new at this point?’ and I really didn’t, so I just stuck with it.”
From a young age, Sovern said she wanted to become a teacher.
“I remember lining up my bears and dolls and teaching them lessons,” she said, laughing. “I was probably about 5, 6 years old. I remember doing that at a young age, always knew that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a teacher. I knew I wanted to work with kids.”
Sovern was born in Heilbronn, Germany, and grew up as an Army brat with her father being a drill sergeant and later wound up in Brownstown.
After graduating from Brownstown Central High School in 1980, she worked various jobs, including at a day care and a restaurant, so she could earn money to take college classes.
Two years into her classes at IU, her first child, Christina, was born, so she took some time away from college.
In 1992, she received her bachelor’s degree in education from IU.
“I was always determined,” Sovern said.
For the next year, she was a teacher at Bloomington Meadows Hospital, a psychiatric facility where she helped kids keep up on their homework and stay connected with school.
“Talk about going into something green, that was an interesting experience, but it taught me a lot about behavior, abnormal behavior, mental issues and those kinds of things,” Sovern said.
She then became pregnant with her second daughter, Amanda, and stopped working for a while until she started substitute teaching at Brownstown and Medora schools.
Next, she became a teacher’s aide with MIMH and special education preschool at Brownstown Elementary School, working alongside Cindy Koop.
The next year, in 1998, the number of preschool kids increased, so that became its own job, and Sovern taught that class. She wound up doing that for nine years.
“I had to deal with kids that couldn’t walk, some couldn’t talk, they were still doing diapers,” she said. “I would say it was one of the most demanding jobs but also the most rewarding because I loved it. I had some really good success stories of kids that I got.”
The best part was watching the kids continue through school, and several went on to earn a high school diploma.
“I have several kids that I just watched and they just ended up doing so much better,” she said. “I never say they can’t. I never tell parents they can’t. I say, ‘It may be difficult, may be hard, but I never say can’t.’ I always see what I can do, and I try everything if there’s a way to teach them or a way to connect with them or do whatever I could. … That was rewarding.”
For the 2007-08 school year, Sovern taught first grade Title I. The next school year, she was a Title I reading teacher.
“I loved reading,” she said. “That’s why I loved the early ages, too, because I love reading to kids. I love teaching reading, how to read.”
In 2009 after Freetown Elementary School closed and some teachers came to BES, Sovern was one of three teachers who moved to Brownstown Central Middle School. She became a learning disabilities resource teacher, a position she would hold until deciding to retire.
One year, her focus was helping special education students with reading. For a couple of years, she went into the language arts classrooms to assist students.
From there, her classroom was more of a study hall, where she retaught lessons to special education kids, helped them choose books and monitored their progress more closely.
For the last few years, Sovern said she began thinking about retiring. That was sparked by becoming passionate about writing and completing her first book, “My Boy is Home,” in 2018 and enjoying trips to Arizona to see Christina and her family.
“Every time I went out to visit her the last few years, it’s like, ‘Wow! I really like this,’” Sovern said. “I like it out there, and I like the rodeos because it’s what my first book was a lot about. There’s so much of that out there, and it just seemed like me. The environment seems more like me, fits me.”
Next month, Sovern plans to move to Arizona near Christina, her husband, Chris, and their four boys. Amanda, her husband, Dylan, and their daughter live in Kurtz. They are expecting their second child in December.
In retirement, Sovern wants to spend more time with her family, find a part-time job and continue to work on her second book.
She read a story about Indiana State Police Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of Brownstown losing his K-9 and talked to him about his experience and thought it would be a really good book.
“It has just been in the back of my head, and then finally, I decided ‘OK, I’m going to write it,’” Sovern said. “I was talking to him a lot about the training and all that’s involved, which I don’t think a lot of people realize, so I want to get into those kinds of details of how much work you put into it.”
While she will miss seeing her students at school and her family and friends in Jackson County, Sovern is looking forward to settling in a new state. She will still keep in touch with them and make trips back home.
“I’m just one of those, I guess, a free spirit,” she said. “I’m just open to change, I’m open to exploring things and it just feels good.”
Sovern file
Name: Pat Sovern
Age: 59
Hometown: Born in Heilbronn, Germany, and later moved to Brownstown
Residence: Moving to Arizona in July
Education: Brownstown Central High School (1980); Indiana University (bachelor’s degree in education, 1992; master’s degree in education, 2005)
Occupation: Recently retired after 25 years in education
Family: Daughters, Christina (Chris) Mathisen and Amanda (Dylan) Michaels; grandsons, Tyler, Jack, Beckett and Maddox Mathisen; granddaughter, Ellie Michaels