I first came to SNU in 1989 after having served in the US Navy. I entered SNU as a Pre-Med major under Dr. Bob Judd. After my 3rd semester of my undergraduate work, I married Michelle Jones, who was a freshman at SNU at the time. After another few semesters of work, I ended up leaving school to work a few different jobs as Michelle was pregnant with our daughter, Jessica.

Upon leaving SNU I struggled heavily with a vocational direction in my life. I was seeking God's will in my life but looking back now, I believe there are things I should have done much differently. I moved from job to job over the next 20ish years, including another stint in the military, this time in the US Army.

One memory I have about my work and teaching is when my father-in-law asked me, on the day before I was to report for my first day of training with the Army, "Are you sure you don't want to go back to school and become a middle school science teacher? You've got a good amount of hours to do that." I distinctly remember my reply, as well as I remember his question, "Teaching is the last thing I want to do in life!" This was in January of 1995, about a year after the birth of our son, JC.

Fast forward nearly 10 years to 2004 when I was returning to school at SNU to be a secondary science major. I had worked in window tinting and vehicle accessories since 1997, when I was released from the Army after developing a pretty serious issue with my back while in Korea. Michelle, by this time, had finished her undergraduate degree in English and a Master's in Curriculum & Instruction at SNU and was working in the English Department as an adjunct professor.

It is probably now obvious that God had other plans, even though I thought I did not want to teach. I had seen Michelle's experiences teaching. I saw her build relationships with students that had a high impact on both her and the students. I wanted that. I hoped that I could be as good a teacher as she seemed to be. However, some part of me was returning to school to "just get that degree." I saw education as the "easiest" route to finishing, since I could wrap things up in just a couple of years, working as a traditional student.

I graduated in 2007 with a degree in Science Education and began to teach Physics at Putnam City High School. Very quickly, I learned that teaching was absolutely what I needed to be doing. I grew as a person - intellectually and emotionally - and I learned my own way to have the sort of satisfaction Michelle had in her own job. My teaching did not look like her's, but it was working for me. I was honored to be named as Teacher of the Year for my building and district. I even made it to the finals of Teacher of the Year for the State of Oklahoma. I will never know what could have been as I began a job at the Oklahoma State Dept. of Education - in the very same office which ran the competition. I dropped out of the competition with no regrets as I believed I could make a positive change under a superintendent who was a dentist by trade and elected by people who were pro-voucher and almost considered "anti-public education."

During all of this time, I was earning a Master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction at SNU. When I began that Master's program, I firmly believed I was lucky to have been accepted and felt this was certainly going to be the highest level of education I would achieve. However, on the first night of the program, Dr. Linda Everrett, the program director, said, "Many of you will go on and earn PhDs and do great things." I definitely felt I was not in that category. I worked hard and finished that degree and began to wonder, what if I could go on and do a doctorate program?

In the beginning of 2012, after leaving the state Department of Education, I began working at SNU as an instructional designer, while also teaching a few undergraduate courses for the Bridge Program - on overload. These included Earth's Natural Disasters, Introduction to Astronomy, and Geomorphology. I even got to teach Elementary Methods of Science - my very first education class! While teaching occasionally at night and interacting with terminally-degreed professors during the day, I began to think very seriously about where my vocational journey was heading and whether or not I should take the leap to the doctorate.

I entered Oklahoma State University as a special student (not accepted into a program) in the Fall of 2012 and was formally accepted in 2013. I had left SNU's Online Resource Center, where I worked as an Instructional Designer, for the greener pastures of Canadian Valley Technology Center. The money was an offer I could not refuse. I had a very strong desire to teach in SNU's Education Department by this time and I let my Dean and the Chair of the department know it. Even though I was leaving, I still felt that I could make a difference, specifically in Educational Technology, in that department.

As I continued my work on my doctorate, I spent two years at CV Tech, learning so much about program administration, online learning, career tech, and working closely with teachers to build relationships and integrate technology. All of the different jobs I had in education had been preparing for a career at SNU in the Education department. I became the "go-to" technology guy in every position I worked. I had exposure to many different types of online learning, from fully online to hybrid/blended learning to minimal integration of technology tools. My work with teachers enabled me to think like a teacher of teachers and helped me to step directly in once I was hired to fill the position Dr. Bev DeVries left available upon her retirement.

I am now into my third year teaching at SNU and am currently the instructor for several courses in both the Fall and Spring semesters. I also teach occasionally in the Bridge Program in Professional Studies and I have an opportunity to teach the Portfolio course in MAEL (as a part of load) and a graduate Ed Tech course for Para-professionals and Alternative Certification educators as overload.