Educator of the Year

Having an older brother in the same school as you can be either a blessing or a burden. If they have a good relationship with a teacher, it can be a blessing and help you by the time that you there. If they’re anything like how my brother was in middle school, you might as well start over and pray the teacher doesn’t remember his name. I would constantly hear from my brother about why he didn’t like this teacher or that teacher and what is wrong with them.
I was in fifth grade, he was in sixth, when he came home one day with raving reviews about a teacher I had only heard about, Mr. Sturm. My brother loved him and that made me excited to get to his class the next year.
When I finally got to sixth grade with Mr. Sturm, I walked into a room full of pheasants and pictures of his dogs and see a tall, slender man standing in the front of the room with a smile that showed pure excitement for learning.
“Mr. Bredeson! Good to see you sir, how’s Jack doing?” His voice boomed through the entire room and caught me off guard that a teacher was actually talking to me before he had the opportunity to learn my name. From that moment on I knew I was going to love this year.
One of the reasons everybody loved him was because of his stories. That man had more stories about his life than any TV show or movie could portray.  Stories about his hunting experiences, the amazing adventures he went on as a young kid out of school, and of course, the class favorite, his stories about him working at the Brewer games as a beer vendor. Most teachers enjoy their summer vacations because it’s a break from the work and to relax for a while. Mr. Sturm would work every single Brewer game in the summer, and if one of his students were at the game, it was their job to find Mr. Sturm and say hello.
As the year went on, Mr. Sturm and I became very close as we bonded over our love of our dogs and our love of sports. I’ve never had a teacher quite like Mr. Sturm. When talking to him outside of class, you would view him as a friend that you could say anything to and he would understand. But once class began, everybody was mesmerized and waiting on every word he spoke, trying to soak up some of his genius he was pouring out to us. I’ve always wanted a teacher like that throughout my entire life, but he is the only one to have ever achieved that miraculous feat.
Mr. Sturm retired from teaching four years ago, and I was there at his student-organized retirement party. We shared a long, firm hug and I shed a few tears thinking I was never going to see this influential man again. I saw him one time in the years that followed, until this last summer. I applied for a job as a vendor at the Brewer games, just as my teacher had done for 30 years before me, and with a special recommendation from him, he helped me land my first part-time job. Even after I had gone on to pass through his tutoring, he was still there to help me. This is why I am nominating Mr. Bill Sturm as my Educator of the Year. It’s not because he taught me how the Spartans had their heroic stand at the Battle of Thermopylae, which he did by the way, it is because he taught me how to grow up and be a man, and he was with me every step of the way.
Mr Sturm is the most encouraging, supportive, and inspirational educator I have ever come in contact with. He is not my Educator of the Year, he is the educator of my life.