Nice to Meet Ya: Lew Colborne

Winnipeg is a long way from Dripping Springs, about 1,500 miles or so. It's a long trek, a change in cultures, although they speak mostly English, a little French here and there, and Manitoba is almost as big as Texas. But there are differences. Manitoba is also known as the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” for one and Texas’ only polar bears are in a zoo. The climates are completely different (except for last February), but life can lead you in many directions, with twists and turns and sometimes can lead you to a good place.

Ending up in Central Texas, Dripping Springs High School has been where Lew Colborne has been teaching students, video, graphics, animation, CAD and other media courses and enjoying it. It’s funny how life is.

Lew grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, graduated from Rand Park High School and attended the University of Manitoba. After graduation with a BFA, he became a print maker and managed a studio, along with being a printmaking technician, saving money for graduate school.

He was intrigued by the thought of coming to Texas; he was accepted by UT-San Antonio “I knew it would be a bit of a culture shock. And I didn't really know anything about Texas except the name and those Saturday morning cowboy movies.” Back to Toronto to finish his thesis, and receive his MFA, and after a while a teaching position at the University of Alberta. While his wife, Gail was a San Antonio native and couldn’t work in Canada, because she was a U.S. citizen. A decision was made to move back to Texas.

He couldn’t find the right teaching position, so he along with a partner started a home repair business. But doing the books along with paying subcontractors and legal disputes, leaving the stress-filled seven days a week business was the only way out.

His wife mentioned alternative teaching certification and then it was jumping through the hoops, going to the right classes and meeting the right qualifications to teach high school art in Texas. He attended a job fair and learned Uvalde ISD was in need of a art teacher.

“The table for Uvalde waved me over and said, hey, I just got a phone call that our art teacher is going on maternity leave. So our principals were in there interviewing people, so if you'd like to hang around, she'd like to interview you. So I interviewed with her. She invited me out, showed me the campus, and I accepted the position.”

He taught junior high art.

Later, he got a phone call from future DSHS principal, Joe Burns, who was vice principal at Uvalde with Greg Jung as principal, now both at DSHS in the same positions.

“I started Dripping Springs, and because of my building background, and being able to read plans, they wanted me to teach some CAD as well. They trained me how to use the CAD, with a three-day training on the CAD program. I taught engineering, graphics, architectural graphics, video, and photography.”

He taught for twenty years at DSHS before retiring, tried to stay retired for three years, came back and has taught for five more. Retirement wasn’t as good as the idea of retirement.

“There was something missing in my day. For three years, we did that. I need to be doing something. I'm not going to sit around and watch TV. I got to be doing something, building something, making something, learning something. When I retired, I worked with my friend in Canada,” Lew said. But that didn’t work out.

Back again to the high school, he feels he is in a good place teaching again.

“I think the video class really is my favorite, although I have to say animation is a pretty cool thing to teach. I like it. But I really am happy that I have to do both, each side feeding my mind differently. And I like working on that stuff with students, I don't want to just lecture them.”

Teaching students at DSHS has been good to Lew.

“The highlight was getting this job,” he said. “Because teaching Dripping kids, and just teaching in Dripping Springs, was such a change of pace and so much more. To me, it was exactly what I wanted to do. My curiosity could be quenched and I had students who were as curious about similar things. So I could feel their curiosity, and they could feel mine. And there is a lot more interaction, which I like.”

Lew will be returning for his 28th year at Dripping Springs High School in August.