Education master鈥檚 student and Fall 鈥24 graduate Jesse Whitman has always been drawn to people and places that don鈥檛 match his own background. In fact, when he graduated from his small-town, southwest Michigan high school in 2007, he didn鈥檛 apply to a single in-state university 鈥 just to guarantee that he鈥檇 land somewhere unfamiliar. As it turned out, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio wasn鈥檛 exactly exotic, but it was hard to turn down a Division I track scholarship. Whitman鈥檚 major at Miami, however, did stretch his horizons. He majored in history, with a concentration in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. He even learned Arabic. 鈥淚 just have always had this desire to learn about other cultures, and that seemed about as different from my own background as you could get,鈥 he says.
Whitman loved his time at Miami, but he jokes now that his choice of major may have complicated his employment prospects 鈥 especially given he graduated in 2011, when the U.S. economy was still recovering from the Great Recession. So fresh out of college, and struggling to find work in his field, he decided to completely switch gears. He says he joined the Navy in small part because his grandfather had served in the Navy, and in large part because he had a lot of student loan debt and the Navy has a generous loan repayment program. When he enlisted, he scored high on the ASVAB exam, a sort of SAT for the military, which put him on track to train to become a 鈥渘uke鈥 鈥 technical staff who maintain the electrical systems on the Navy鈥檚 nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers. The intense training lasted 18 months, after which Whitman was assigned to the Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier based in Norfolk, Virginia, where he worked on operations and maintenance of the nuclear propulsion plant鈥檚 high-voltage electrical system.
Whitman says his time in the Navy shaped him in several important ways. The high-stakes environment of operating a nuclear-powered electrical system taught him a lot about the importance of owning your work. And it enabled him to see the world: during his time in the Navy, he went to Dubai, Croatia, Crete and Bahrain. Most importantly, he says, it taught him a lot about people 鈥 and specifically, about who Americans really are, deep down, when the issues that divide us aren鈥檛 front and center. 鈥淚 mean, when you鈥檙e doing your shift and you鈥檙e trying to stay awake at 2 a.m. and you're not looking at your equipment, what are you doing? You鈥檙e learning about the person sitting next to you, what they believe in, what they enjoyed about the recent port call,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he Navy takes a really big sample of America. It鈥檚 maybe a better representation of what America really is 鈥 or could be. It鈥檚 the melting pot. It鈥檚 people who have really different backgrounds and beliefs, but there is this expectation that we鈥檙e all going to work together regardless of our beliefs because we all have this greater mission we鈥檙e contributing to. After being in the Navy, I鈥檓 confident I could work with anyone.鈥
Whitman says the reason he left the Navy was pretty simple: His daughter was born, and his demanding work schedule, which required him to be out to sea for weeks at a time, meant he was missing too many of her 鈥渇irsts.鈥 He decided not to renew his contract and to head back to school, making what seemed like a logical choice. He enrolled in UM-Dearborn鈥檚 electrical engineering program, where he says the stunning new Engineering Lab Building was a big draw. But three semesters in, he simply wasn鈥檛 feeling it. 鈥淚 was doing well academically, but it wasn鈥檛 鈥榮parking joy鈥 鈥 to quote Marie Kondo,鈥 he says, smiling. 鈥淪o I tried to think back to the last time I felt a lot of job satisfaction, and it was teaching.鈥
In the Navy, it turned out, Whitman got to do quite a bit of teaching, most often about technical subjects having to do with the ship鈥檚 electrical systems. Other times, it was more informal, like the mentorship that came with looking out for younger members of his team. 鈥淪ome of them were 18 years old, and the Navy can throw a lot of money at you, so it鈥檚 important to take care of your finances,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hey had questions about how to buy a car or buy a house, and I was a little older, so I could help them with that stuff. It felt good to be able to impact their lives in a really practical way.鈥 Whitman decided to cut his losses in his engineering program and switch to a Master鈥檚 of Education. The vibe shift for him was immediate. He says it felt incredible to suddenly be around a group of super positive people who were all committed to serving a greater good 鈥 not totally unlike the environment he鈥檇 found in the Navy, but it was a better fit for who he鈥檇 become.
Whitman says it feels pretty amazing to be bringing this chapter of his life to a close 鈥 which, of course, is really just the beginning of a new chapter. In particular, he feels fortunate to have had the time and space to 鈥渇ind my footing as a 35-year-old man,鈥 something he says was only an option because of his wife鈥檚 support. And his student teaching experience this past semester has only reinforced the feeling that he鈥檚 made a good choice. In particular, he鈥檚 enjoyed all the experimentation it's forced him to do. On his very first day, for example, when he bored the first two periods of sixth-grade geography students with a prepared lecture on the fundamentals of maps, he wasted no time pivoting. During the lunch hour, he quizzed his supervising teacher, who gave him some sage advice about the attention spans of 11-year-olds that he鈥檚 still using. Developmentally, Whitman says, kids that age are still learning how to digest large 鈥渂locks鈥 of information. So this semester, he learned to mix in things like YouTube videos and activities that ask the kids to weigh in with their takes on things. 鈥淟uckily, I鈥檓 at the age where it鈥檚 easy for me to accept that I don鈥檛 know everything,鈥 Whitman says. 鈥淚鈥檓 new to this, so working with teachers that have been at this for 20 years 鈥 of course, they鈥檙e going to be better at it than me. Why wouldn鈥檛 I try out their advice? Even they鈥檙e still trying out new things. You see that teaching really is going to be a lifelong learning experience.鈥
In fact, Whitman鈥檚 student teaching experience at his Oak Park middle school has been so enjoyable, he鈥檚 now thinking his preferred first job might be something like teaching 7th grade 鈥 even though he originally envisioned himself as a high school social studies teacher. 鈥淲ith all things, I try to just embrace the opportunity you find yourself with,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 kind of think of it like being in a maze. How do you know you鈥檙e going the wrong direction? You hit the wall and turn around. That鈥檚 happened to me a few times in life. But now I鈥檓 finding that I might want to do middle school because I gave it a chance. The path in front of me still feels open.鈥
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Story by Lou Blouin
