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Do what you love

July 17, 2014

A funny thing happened to Chris Burns’ (’13) career path after one semester at Clarion University. The business major discovered a passion for history and decided to devote his life to igniting that same passion in youth. He changed his major to secondary education/social studies and completed his degree.

He took that education and headed south, landing a teaching position at Texler Junior High School, Richland, N.C.

The area is economically similar to North Apollo, where he was raised, but Richland boasts a strong agricultural heritage. In many families, the farming tradition spans numerous generations, and continuing those legacies is firmly ingrained into the majority of the kids, which, Burns said, sometimes overshadows formal education.

Although the culture differs from what he is accustomed to, Burns works to instill in his students a love of history.

“Passion is motivation to learn,” Burns said.

Dr. Jesse Haight, who teaches methods in Clarion’s education department, remembers Burns being quite motivated to learn. “He was open minded about my suggestions and variations in teaching methods,” Haight said.

Burns said Haight’s class was one of the best he took at Clarion, and daily he uses strategies he learned from him when creating lesson plans.

“We do a lot of project-based instruction, where I urge the students to learn on their own and use my knowledge to back that up,” Burns said. “This is especially effective when allowing students to work on things that interest them.”

Just as Burns went with his gut in changing his career path from business to education, he encourages today’s Clarion’s students to do the same.

“I would encourage them to talk to their professors and upperclassmen about their majors to help them in making an educated decision,” he said.

Clarion’s low teacher to student ratio makes that easy.

“The professors know you and are very approachable,” Burns said.

Last Updated 1/11/21