Going to school every Monday through Friday and having a fun time learning is not something I often hear about. I would never have expected the words school and fun to go together in the same sentence. Until…I had Mr. Vento for eighth grade math at North Shore Middle School. 

Every day, I walked into class, took my seat at my pod of four desks in the corner, and listened to a bad lip reading song of Star Wars called “Seagulls.” And when I say “every day,” I don't mean now and then, I mean every single day. The class would die of laughter and so would Mr. Vento. I never realized why he started out class the same way like that every day until recently. He wanted us to enjoy school, he wanted us to have fun at school. He made education exciting. 

As the year continued, Mr. Vento continued to use different ways of learning: group projects, white boards for games, and other fun activities. Sure, I liked math in the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year, I was more in love with math than I had ever been. Because of him, I knew I would want to do something related to math in the future. 

Not only would Mr. Vento crack jokes randomly throughout the year, he would also tell us stories about his weekend and his four kids. I could tell he was an amazing father to his children just by the way he talked about them and how he was so open about his life outside of school. 

At the end of the school day as I packed up all of my belongings from my locker, his kids would come to North Shore for Mr. Vento to take them home. I would see them running at him with bright smiles on their faces that matched mine when I walked into class every day. I never had a bad day because of Mr. Vento and the compassion he gave to both his children as well as all of his students as if it was just his way of life. 

Today, I am a junior in high school and thanks to Mr. Vento’s dedication to my education, his personality, and his eagerness to help me grow and succeed in math and life in general, my heart is set on becoming an Architectural Engineer. 

So, Mr. Vento, I would like to thank you for helping me get to where I am today, and motivating and encouraging me to work hard so I can succeed at anything I want in life. You have been an inspiration to me for the person I want to become in the future, as well as the decision for the career path I want to follow. Much of this is due to your enthusiasm to support me in all ways possible and how fun and enjoyable you made class every day.