Biography for

Ada (Smith) Pollock

Ada chose to go to a great, but small, Christian college in Kansas called Sterling. During her junior year she took advantage of a new junior year abroad program and attended the University of Ghana in West Africa. it proved to be a fantastic year of learning--in many ways. Later she received an NSF (National Science Foundation) grant to attend the University of Oregon to do graduate work in biology. There she earned an M.S. in biology with some emphasis on teaching at the college level. 

Next she worked as a school teacher in Lima, Peru for 2 years. During school breaks, she was allowed to work as a temporary partner to Wycliffe Bible linguists in 6 locations of the Amazon basin. As a helper, her job varied from cooking and hunting under primitive conditions to dispensing medical help and teaching the alphabet, etc. 

Later she married Jim Pollock and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was working at Milwaukee School of Engineering as a radiation safety officer and instructor. Due to her interest in medicine, she trained at Marquette U. and Deaconess Hospital to become a registered medical lab technologist. She worked in Hematology and taught biology at Concordia College. 

Both she and her husband worked at the Inter-American School in Quezaltenango, Guatemala. There, besides teaching, she found time to work weekly at an Indian clinic 7 miles away. During their 4 years there, they had their first 2 children. Later in the U.S. they had 2 more children. 

In the states in 1979, they moved to an old dairy farm in Twinsburg Township. This allowed them to "expand their family" by raising goats, hens, sheep, rabbits, cats, dogs, and a pony. Ada was also very involved with her mother's care as her Alzheimer's progressed. As the kids grew up, she was involved with the school board, her church, garden club, and her kids' sports and activities.  

She has taught biology at several schools and has done substitute teaching. For 7 years she worked at Laurel Lakes in Hudson as a "PAL" to older individuals. Over 12 years ago she started teaching at Tri-C. (Mostly biology, Health, Human Biology, Anatomy and Physiology and Medical Terminology). She has also taught homeschoolers Biology and Anatomy & Physiology at Hope Academy in Macedonia. 

As her kids left home, she has been able to travel more. She enjoys learning about the cultures and seeing various gardens and landscapes. She took a lot of pictures and made a TV show several years ago for Cable TV. She's had the opportunity to live and/or travel in over 40 countries. In May, 2010, she and her sister visited China and Hong Kong after she'd taken a year of Mandarin. 

In the summer of 2010 she and Jim became "empty nesters" when her youngest son, Jeremy, was married. The first 3 married children have given her 6 grandchildren to enjoy--all of whom are 4 years old or younger! 

Ada is still teaching and tutoring at Tri-C, Eastern Campus where she continues taking courses.