V was one of the first teachers I met at St. Joe, but my first encounter with him was before high school began. As an 8th grader who had never attended public school before, I was a little uncertain how things would be in such an unfamiliar environment; so, when I shadowed a student for a day, I was ready for anything. Luckily, this student had V as a teacher for 3 hours straight, so my first experience of public school was mostly of his teaching: I remember coming out of that thinking that if most teachers at St. Joe were like him, I’d be perfectly fine.
V, as a teacher, inspired confidence in his students: in his Mechatronics class, I became comfortable with programming and problem-solving in an environment where it was all right to fail, and he would always help patiently coach students until they could succeed. I know countless students are better off from having taken his classes, and his legacy will live on in the programs he built at St. Joe.
Robotics was my place to belong in high school and shaped me into a better person in many ways: without V’s dedication and incredible time commitment to the team’s success and our welfare, this space wouldn’t have existed for me to thrive. But more specifically, V invited me to greater participation on the team and gave the student as much of a voice as the adult. Maybe that’s what stands out to me most as I look back: V treated students as adults, as full people in their own right, and that made a huge difference in my story.
I think I echo a lot of what other students have said when I say that my only regret is not getting the chance to say thanks just one more time for all he did; we were all so happy that he was enjoying his new job at Eagle, and I wish he had more time there to do so. We’ll miss him a lot
