Tell us why you became a teacher

My path to becoming a CTE/College Automotive instructor started out with a tragic workplace injury. I had blown out my right knee when I was at the height of my career of 22yrs working as a Gold Master Technician for Porsche. After being on medical leave and 3 years of medical treatment, I am now permanently partially disabled and cannot work in a shop environment like I used to. Now my purpose in life has transistioned from helping people with vehicle repairs, to helping people create careers.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I Remember almost all of my students, both good and bad. Some of them, even after graduating over 2yrs ago, will still call me and see how I am doing, ask car questions, etc. I tell every one of them that I will be a mentor for them as long as they would like/need me to be and I will always offer non-biased advice for them. My most memorable moment so far in instructing, is when I have a student come up to me to ask what classes I am teaching next term because they specifically like my methods.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I have had to buy many tools, with my paycheck/income funds, simply because of lack of resources for my programs. After trying many avenues to gain donations, funding, and resources, I believe I would still use this money to buy more tools just so my students would have the experiences that they deserve. I would love for it to be enough to have my knee/hip replacement done, but at my current age of 41, they would probably not want to properly fix my injuries at this age still.