It was only fitting that members of the two groups who inspired her would be the ones to bring the news.

“About a month ago, they all walked into the Long Branch on a Wednesday with this big bouquet of flowers,” Joyce Schamberger of rural Amboy said.

Among the group who brought the news that Schamberger had been selected as Sauk Valley Community College’s 2026 Distinguished Alumna were her husband, Rick Schamberger; her brother, Bob Olson; his wife, Wendy; and her mother, Mary Lou Olson. Also in the group were representatives from the First National Bank in Amboy, including bank president Colleen Henkel and loan officer Elsa Payne.

“We’re all part of the community,” Schamberger said.

Schamberger retired four years ago from more than 30 years in education as a teacher and administrator, the bulk of that spent in Amboy schools, the same schools she and her brother and sister attended.

That sense of community and family is something she brought to her classrooms and her job as principal of Amboy Junior High School, then Central School.

“I ran my classrooms like a family. We are a family. We have to stick together,” she said.

The decision to be a teacher came while she was a student at Sauk Valley Community College. Unsure of what she wanted to do, at one point considering a career as a librarian because she liked the organizational aspect of libraries, Schamberger attended SVCC for two years.

“I was able to live at home. I worked two part-time jobs and saved some money,” she said.

She was inspired by teachers and coaches like Claire Holmberg, who coached and taught Schamberger. Schamberger participated in volleyball and basketball while at Sauk.

“She helped me build the mindset and the confidence I needed to continue my education,” Schamberger said.

Deciding on a career as a physical education teacher and inspired by Holmberg, Schamberger went on to complete a Bachelor of Science in physical education at Northern Illinois University, graduating in 1981.

In 1979, she married Rick Schamberger, whom she met while they both worked at his father’s grocery store in Amboy.

Schamberger’s first teaching job was teaching science to sixth, seventh and eighth grade students at St. Mary Elementary and Junior High School. During that first year of teaching, Schamberger knew that this was what she wanted to do.

“I ended up going back to get my certification to be a classroom teacher,” she said.

When an opening to teach fifth grade at Amboy Junior High School came up, Schamberger was happy to return as a teacher. Returning to the schools where she had once been a student was, in every sense, coming home.

“I knew the students. I knew their parents, I knew where they lived, what the family dynamics were. You saw them and their parents at the grocery store and in church and at the Long Branch,” Schamberger said.

She also credits the AJHS community at the time, principal Rich Bumba, then Don Wyzgowski, and her fellow teachers, for inspiring and helping her as a young teacher.

“I loved it. I was very fortunate. We had the McCrackens, the Kellers, Sue Kerr, Kai Conway, Tom Full, Renee and Tom Brown. They all took me under their wing, and they weren’t going to let me fail,” she said.

She taught at AJHS for 20 years before being appointed dean of students to assist a new principal, Ann Norris, in connecting with the local community, students and parents. Norris had urged her to return to school for a Type 75 Administrative certificate, which would allow Schamberger to be an administrator.

“She was brilliant, and I learned a lot from her,” Schamberger said.

When Norris left before the end of the school year, Schamberger, then dean of students, was appointed acting principal. She was officially hired as principal at AJHS just a month later and started at AJHS in her new role in the fall of 2006.

“I took the written comps for the Type 75 on a Friday, and the following Monday, I was to start officially as principal,” Schamberger said.

As principal, Schamberger found a different world than she had known as a teacher.

“It was hard. I always referred to it as joining the dark side. People who were your friends before were now afraid to say anything around me, so it was kind of lonely at times, but it was rewarding at the same time,” she said.

During the early to mid-2000s, the Amboy School District experienced cutbacks in budget and staff, which meant that Schamberger became principal of both Amboy Junior High School and Central School.

“It was hard and exhausting, but it was good. I knew the junior high curriculum, so it was good to see the approach at Central. It was fascinating,” she said.

The current principal at Amboy Junior High School, Andrew Full, was her assistant. When the district got on a better financial footing, Schamberger had to make a choice between the schools.

“I bawled all summer because I loved them both. I didn’t want Andrew to leave, and I liked Central, so I stayed at Central,” she said.

Along the way, she and Rick had three children, Nathan, John and Catherine. Nathan and John served in the Illinois Air National Guard, with Nathan serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and John serving overseas. Catherine followed her mother into education and works in special education and job placement.

Joyce and Rick have 10 grandchildren, eight boys and two girls. When she’s not babysitting or attending baseball games for her grandchildren, Joyce is busy working at the Long Branch Saloon in Amboy, taking care of their catering business, working during the Wednesday lunch hour and keeping the restaurant supplied with homemade desserts.

The Long Branch was where Joyce worked during high school and while attending Sauk, and it was later purchased by her parents, Robert Sr. and Mary Lou Olson, and her brother and sister-in-law, Robert Jr. and Wendy Olson.

Schamberger said one of the biggest rewards is that same sense of community and family that brought her back to Amboy as a young teacher.

“It’s seeing those students I had, who are now parents, come up to me and say, ‘Hi, Mrs. Schamberger.’ I tell them you can call me Joyce and they’ll say, ‘Oh no, you’re always Mrs. Schamberger,’ ” she said.