Veterans find new way to serve
From Ramona and Montecito high schools to Olive Peirce Middle School and James Dukes Elementary, at least a dozen teachers and support staff have chosen to continue a life of service through education after having already served their country in the U.S. military.
Teachers like retired Navy captain Kevin McNees. Shy as a boy, McNees credits the Navy with giving him the confidence to lead a classroom full of teenagers, first as a math teacher at Ramona High and currently as a long-term substitute at Mountain Valley Academy.
“The part about the Navy I liked most was training young officers and seeing them mature, learn, earn promotions and ove on to assignments with increased responsibilities,” said McNees, a Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran. “It was always great running into them years later and sesing them in assignments that I had previously held. After retiring I could have styaed in a Navy-like job that many of my friends did as either a contractor for a large company or as a government employee.
“Although this would have paid significantly more, I wanted to try something totally different and decided teaching would be a challenging choice.”
Among the most valuable payoffs for McNees is seeing students succeed.
“It is ... great when you see that student who is struggling finally figure things out and the light bulb comes on,” said McNees.
Another veteran-turned-teacher is Daniel Paquette, who served in the Army and now teaches Spanish at Ramona High School.
“I was drawn to teach by my experience of having both excellent and horrible teachers, those who inspired me ... and other who didn’t have the faintest idea about how to make a subject interesting,” said Paquette, a helicopter mechanic and crew chief.
Paquette said his military experience taught him “perseverance through hard work and tolerance or others and adversity.”
“Hopefully, students will learn from me that, if a persons sets his or her mind to sn objective, does not give up, then he or she will accomplish great things,” he said.