Program takes people from the military to a classroom

Kurt Rice used to work in military intelligence.

He'd gather information, then relay it to the bosses.

It was almost the same as teaching high school English, he said.

He wasn't joking when he said that.

Think about it like this: You're standing in front of a crowd of skeptics -- big shots in scenario one, teenagers in scenario two -- and it's your job to convince them that you know what you're talking about.

"You have to give them the performance of your life every day," he said. "And teach them something."

Rice, 46, who teaches at Spring Valley High School, is one of a growing number of teachers locally and nationally who used to be in the military.

One reason is the federally funded Troops to Teachers program, which has been around since 1994. This year, University of Nevada, Las Vegas officials are making a big push to get involved in training former troops to become new teachers.

Greg Levitt, a UNLV professor and assistant dean of the college of education, said the university hopes to enhance its schedules to better meet the needs of veterans entering the program.

Myles Judd, coordinator of Troops to Teachers in Nevada, said 228 teachers have been hired in the state through the program, including 56 in 2007.

Nationwide, the program has produced almost 11,000 teachers. The program offers a $5,000 stipend to former military members who study to become teachers.

Judd said the program requires participants to have served six years in the military. After that much time, and often it's much longer, they have leadership skills that easily translate to the classroom.

In addition, participants must already have a college degree. They then go to local colleges and universities to become certified as teachers.

Judd is himself a product of the program. He's spent 21 years in the Utah Army National Guard. In fact, he returned from Iraq eight weeks ago, he said, and resumed his role with the troops program.

Felipe Rendon, 59, has also had lots of real-world experience while serving. He was deployed for the 1990-91 Gulf War, as well as for the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 Northridge, Calif., earthquake.

Starting Monday, Rendon will begin teaching social studies and special education at Las Vegas High School.

He retired in 1998 after 21 years in the military, mostly in the Army National Guard. He moved to Boulder City three years ago, but was bored with retirement.

"The body needs some sort of exertion to be fit," he said. "Both the body and the mind."

He heard about Troops to Teachers, and it made sense. He already had a degree, earned 30 years ago with help from the GI Bill, so he just needed to take classes at UNLV to get his certification.

Tom Dorsey's story is a little different. He was drafted into the Army in 1965.

Dorsey, 62, flunked his physical though, because he'd injured his leg. So, he signed up five years later anyway. They let him in that time.

Eventually, he got assigned as an instructor. He didn't want to do it.

But things clicked for him when every student he taught in a class on grenade throwing passed their exams. That wasn't true for other teachers, he said.

"I started thinking, from that moment forward, 'I am going to be a teacher when I get out,'" he said.

That happened in 1994. He was living in California, and became a certified ROTC instructor. When the school he was at ended the program, Dorsey became a corrections officer for a few years.

A knee injury forced him to quit, and he moved to Las Vegas. He got involved with the school district's alternative route to licensure program, as well as the federal troops program.

He was a substitute teacher at the Spring Mountain Youth Camp, a camp for boys on probation, then taught special education at Mojave High School.

He settled in as the ROTC instructor at Bonanza High School, where he's about to start his third year.

Dorsey said teaching teenagers isn't all that different from his time as an Army drill instructor, and he doesn't mean that in a bad way.

"You almost have to teach all the time in the military," Dorsey said.

Rice, the English teacher, said almost the same thing.

Rice joined the Air Force the year after high school, 1981. He worked as a bomb loader for a dozen years, then moved into intelligence.

He did that for 13 years.

"It was actually great preparation for this job," said Rice, noting that he had to clearly and concisely write down the intelligence he gathered.

All along the way, he planned on teaching after his military career, he said.

Rice earned his bachelor's in English and a master's in education while in the Air Force.

He retired in 2006, already working on his transition. He substituted for a while, calling it "reconnaissance" for his full-time second career.

Rice started that in January 2007, when a rookie teacher quit with little notice.

"This job is harder than the job I left, and the pay is about half," he said. "But I really like this job.

"I want to see what I can do to help guide and influence. It's not just about grammar. It's about helping young people to see the power the written word can have."

Now, he wants to continue his studies at UNLV so he can become a school librarian.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.