The Wolf of High School

    When people contemplate a career in the business world, they often fantasize about big money, fancy cars, sprawling mansions, and "living large."  Many students choose this path as they select their future careers thanks to popular movies like, "The Wolf of Wall Street."  In the case of K.C., this world became even easier to imagine as she grew up the daughter of a successful New York City stockbroker.  Experiencing this extravagant lifestyle firsthand led her to follow in her father's footsteps and enter the exciting world of business.

    K.C. began her adult life with a degree in economics which lead to her first job in banking.  Looking for more excitement, she followed the advice of some colleagues and made a slight career change into the technology sector.  She explained, "I gained the knowledge and background required to work with government contracts partnering with exciting organizations like the FBI."  There, she performed tasks such as combing data bases to find information on persons of interest based off categories agencies would provide her.  She often compared fingerprints found on evidence with those of dangerous criminals in the system.  She loved this work and everything that came with it, including the excitement, teamwork, and constant unknowns each new day would bring.  Ultimately, this job also solved the most important mystery of them all, what to do with her future.  K.C. realized that all the fun and glamour of her childhood as well as that of her current career, while seemingly pulled straight out of a Hollywood movie, might not actually be the best path for her life anymore.  People might wonder what horrible event happened to her that made her realize this.  "There wasn't one," she uttered.  Her answer, was simply, "family."  She and her husband, expecting their first child, realized that her current work situation would not be ideal for raising a family.  Her husband needed to remain in a different state than where she currently worked due to his new job requirements, and her own career brought with it unpredictable hours, duties, and dangers.  At this moment, she made the tough decision to walk away from everything that she loved and basically start over again in a small town in Pennsylvania.

    K.C. now needed to get a new job to help support her growing family.  This left her with a tough decision, return to her original career in banking, or try something entirely new.  For her the choice was obvious, she enjoyed adventure, so she went back to school at none other than Bloomsburg University. This time, she earned a master's degree in education.  She then took certification tests that allowed her to teach many different subjects.  She started out working for a few different schools and organizations until she eventually ended up at a rural high school in the town where she and her family finally settled down.  It is here where this once contractor with the FBI began teaching classes in subjects such as home economics and cooking along with investing and accounting.  Some might wonder where the idea for this big of a career change originated.  It actually had been modeled for her during her childhood.  K.C. explained, "My mother provided a stable alternative to my father's often unpredictable career."  What did K.C.'s mother do, you ask?  She worked of course, as a high school business teacher.    

    For the past twenty years now, K.C., instead followed in her mother's footsteps, walking the metal locker-lined hallways of an aging high school.  Her business classroom, a medium sized computer lab, constructed entirely of white cinderblocks and blue tile floors shows the lack of character the building possesses.  It contains few windows with only a view of another wing of the building.  She now spends her days in this boring environment teaching the next generation of students enamored by all the glitz and glam that the business world offers.  As the school bell, a vibrating monotone device, dings multiple times a day through the speaker system in the school, students flock in herds from class to class, their conversations producing a roar not unlike that of the trading floor on Wall Street.  K.C.'s classroom location along one of the main hallways in the building guarantees that even during class, the occasional student passing by the door could draw the attention of everyone in the room.  However, when she teaches, her students only focus on her and what she says.  K.C., shy and reserved by nature, stands approximately five foot eight inches tall with dark hair, often styled in some sort of updo.  Her voice always shows her emotions while at the same time demonstrating her New York heritage.  Her attire, nothing more than business casual including gray pants, a light purple shirt, and a pair of sneakers, still manages to keep the attention of all the students that she teaches.  Her secret being the passion and sense of care that she feels for her students and their future success.

    K.C. does not simply teach her students by reading a PowerPoint slide located on the smart board on the front wall of her classroom, or by writing down information on the whiteboards that sandwich this electronic centerpiece, but rather by actively engaging students in the learning process by consistently posing questions and encouraging student participation, questions, and feedback.  No matter the subject of the class she teaches, or the number of students present, her goal does not change, help students find their paths in the world of business.  Particularly, she encourages students to take advantage of opportunities offered to them as she mentioned that she "was never really introduced to topics like accounting back in high school" and that if she would have been, her "career choices may have been a lot different" and she "may never have ended up here."  Although she wishes she experienced these opportunities in her youth, she does not feel like she missed out.  Everyday K.C. heads back to the school and does it all over again just because of the enjoyment it brings her to help students succeed.  This becomes evident when visiting her classroom where scenes such as one that happened during a lesson to a small group of Accounting 2 students about retirement plans sparked a question about how much they should try to contribute from their paychecks.  This discussion resulted in her smiling and utilizing both her teaching information and prior knowledge to happily and excitedly inform the students about what they should and shouldn't do.  K.C. not only loves this job for what she can do for the students, but also for what it allowed her to do for her family.  It allowed her to live with her husband, raise her son, and take care of her sick mother until her death.  She explained how in her previous job, "the government needs information when they need it, not when it is convenient" and this would not have allowed her "to be there for all of these moments and have all of the opportunities" that she enjoyed.

    Despite her love for this phase of her career K.C. still dreams and fantasizes about someday going back to her old life.  She even contemplates leaving her teaching career behind now that her child, an adult himself, does not need her constant support.  "In the end," she exclaims, "teaching and helping the next generation are great, but if you are not making enough to live, then is it really worth it when other jobs can give you that economic stability?"  This brings her right back to her business fantasy roots where the pursuit of money and excitement portrays what the world sees as success.  These thoughts again may fade, but they also might resurface and pull her back into her previous life, the one she originally dreamed of.