Our classrooms and hallways are filled with teachers who choose to spend every day teaching the next generation, but some teachers began on different career paths far from the world of education.

Honors English 10 and AP Language and Composition teacher Nicholas Confino began his career as a booking agent and tour manager for rock bands. Confino has been in and out of the music industry for much of his adult life, spending four years backstage at concerts and music festivals managing bands and musicians before switching careers to teaching in 2011. “I never considered teaching as a career. But with the music industry I wasn’t sure I could be on the road as much and have a family. So I thought, ‘well I like teaching, let me check it out’ and I really fell in love with it,” Confino said.

Confino’s experience in college, working for the Maryland State department and teaching students from former Yugoslavia how to be political and nonprofit leaders in their own countries, sparked his love for education and encouraged his career switch.

In the last few years Confino has re-entered the music industry through a part time job as a data analyst and consultant for the band Billy Strings. Now, he uses his experiences in the music industry to be prepared for the unexpected challenges found in a classroom setting. “Teachers do a lot of planning. But especially in the music industry as a tour manager, things just happen that are unexpected. It’s pretty similar in a classroom. Things just come up, a student may not understand something or a student makes a connection and it can take the lesson into a completely different direction. I like that I have to improvise,” Confino said.

Social Studies teacher Kraig Bauer explored a variety of jobs and career paths before becoming an educator. A significant stage of his life was his years spent in the U.S military. Bauer ultimately held the position of a Bradley Commander, where he was an army personnel carrier in charge of handling firepower and weaponry. His experience was unique: “You do things nobody else is going to get to do and use weaponry no one else is going to use. It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Bauer said.
After being in the Army, Bauer waited tables and tended bars for close to 15 years. His experience in the restaurant industry helped him acquire lifelong skills. “I learned how to read people very well,” Bauer said.

On one occasion, he predicted the total of the check and the tip of a party he waited to the penny, just based on the customers’ demeanors. “You learn how to deal with people and handle situations because you can’t control what the customers want and you can’t control when the food and drinks come out, so you’re stuck and have to manage,” Bauer said.

Bauer was also a manager for the Central Parking System for a little over a year. He was in charge of all of the maintenance for 300+ locations in the D.C. area. He made an abundance of improvements to the company including implementing a new ordering system, order forms and spreadsheets. He condensed the response times for maintenance issues from over a month to a couple days. Eventually he decided to quit this job because some of the personnel issues didn’t appeal to him, so he went back to school to become a teacher.

Bauer has now been teaching for 21 years and he implements skill sets from every job into his teaching style. “Being able to read and understand people, management skills, definitely discipline. Knowing how to handle people and handle stress. Waiting tables where you’re not in charge and there’s a lot of things you can’t control, it’s the same here. You can’t control what students, parents, or administration is going to be like but you need to learn to adapt. That’s definitely something both the Army and the restaurant industry comes into play.” Bauer said.

Honors chemistry and molecular biology teacher Rebecca Firoved gained valuable experience in her field by getting a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and working as a research scientist at NIH. Firoved enjoyed being directly involved in science; her favorite part of the job was doing the actual research and lab work rather than the administrative tasks. In graduate school, Firoved decided she would do research as long as it was fun but when she stopped enjoying it she would switch careers. “I always knew that I was going to teach. I decided doing the bench work after graduate school would make me a better teacher,” Firoved said.

Eventually Firoved got to the point in her career where the next option was either running her own lab where she was less involved in the science or working in industry. So teaching was the natural next step. Firoved brought her skills and experience from working in labs to her molecular biology class. “The molecular biology course is bench work. I teach students how to do those common labs that you do in a research setting. All of those things I learned how to do from my time in a lab,” Firoved said.

Honors modern world, AP World, and philosophy teacher Jefferey Benya was a video shooter and editor for 15 years. He completed a three-year project for the Aational Airport, creating a 20 series video on how to maintain an airport in the future. His work is displayed in the baggage area of the National Airport. Benya also collaborated with the Museum of Richmond, creating informative history videos. He worked for ABC and NBC affiliates and a variety of government agency programs as a filmmaker. Before the hands-on work of filmmaking, he was a manager for movie theaters and won a variety of awards for marketing a film. He won the Showman of the Year award in 2004 through the LA magazine Hollywood Reporter. Benya found a love for marketing through his previous jobs, so he decided to open a bookstore using his film skills and marketing skills. He has owned the store Curmudgeon Books in Glen Burnie for the past 14 years.

On top of owning a bookstore, Benya has been teaching for 19 years. He decided to switch career paths because, “A provost of the northern Virginia community college system said teaching was the most honorable profession in the world and that everyone should want to teach. He used phrases like ‘you will touch the future’ and I thought it was important,” Benya said.

Benya incorporates the skills he’s picked up from his past jobs into teaching. “My former boss said teaching is five shows a day and I’ve taken that to heart. I try to prepare every day so that the kids have something unique,” Benya said.