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Name:
Dan Klimczak
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Residence:
Union Mills, Indiana
Graduation Year:
1999
Major:
History
Minor:
Secondary Education
Why did you choose SJC?
I chose Saint Joseph's College because of the Core
Program. It allows you to work in your major right away and get a feel if
that's really what you want to do. I also wanted to participate in athletics,
and SJC offered me a scholarship to play football. As a student, what were you involved in?
I was a member of the football team, intramural
basketball team, involved with the Student Senate, and a Student Representative
on the College's Academic Cabinet. I also participated in PLEs (Practical
Learning Experiences) for my Secondary Education minor. I was able to observe
classrooms in four different schools, which allowed me to find out what
type of school I wanted to teach in. Also, because I worked with so many
different teachers, I could see what worked, what didn't, and find my own
niche in teaching. What are you doing now?
I'm a History teacher at Valparaiso High School
in Valparaiso, Indiana, where I teach sections of U.S. History and Government
and also American Studies, a fairly new class that takes historic eras and
literature from those areas and studies them together in order to see different
interpretations of events in our history. The class is very project-oriented;
one of them involved the students breaking up into groups of five and putting
together a 30-minute news broadcast revolving around events in the Vietnam
War. It encouraged the students to put themselves into situations in our
past, become genuinely excited about them, and develop an appreciation for
them. I'm also a coach for the varsity football and wrestling teams. How did SJC prepare you for the "real world"?
Saint Joseph's College enabled me to view the world
with a more diverse perspective and to not only face challenges, but welcome
and overcome them. The teachers I had didn't just recite information to
their students. They made you think, form your own opinions, and know how
to defend them. I was forced to think beyond the facts and learn how to
interpret them. Also, being in the classroom so much was a huge benefit.
By the time I had a classroom of my own, teaching was second nature to me.
