Business teacher and DECA Advisor Loni Kress has been a teacher at Dover since 2008 directly after graduating from York College of PA, and became involved with DECA responsibilities in the 2015-2016 school year. 

Kress runs The Red Zone and was a big part in organizing the current Ryan’s Hope Community Giving Project. She also was in charge of the annual Career Day with the 76ers where they toured Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles stadium, then returned to Wells Fargo Center for the 76ers Game.

Kress thinks her impact on students comes from “just getting to know my kids and their passions and then finding a connection of those passions to my content…Maybe it’s that I’m not giving up on them when they make mistakes (because I make them too, we all do, not one of us is perfect).”

Kress hopes to add to her content with a “Social Media in Business & Society” class. She says it would highlight digital marketing and communication and would be worth college credit. She encourages students to take business classes saying, “they learn how to be a leader and can confidently manage a task from start to finish.”

Senior DECA President Madalyn Smyser has taken all of Kress’s classes and is in her senior Capstone. Smyser says, “She always says that it’s not the smartest people who get the farthest in the world, it’s the ones who work the hardest.” This is the type of advice students need to hear to understand that even during rough times, if they work hard enough they will be successful.

Senior DECA member Naomi Smith says, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my future, and I didn’t even think I’d succeed…Once I took one of her classes I figured out what I wanted to do, and she gave me the knowledge and confidence on how to follow through with it.” 

Smith adds that “She genuinely loves and cares for each and everyone of her students and that she’s proud of how far we’ve all come.”

Kress says her favorite part of teaching is “Seeing students grow over the course of their high school career. I’m lucky that I get to watch many from freshman year on up!” 

When she’s not in the classroom, she enjoys spending time with her two sons, who are ten and six. She also enjoys running and fitness.