Dream jobs don’t always become reality; These teachers had a change of heart

In high school, you start to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. However, sometimes interests and other factors change according to these teachers.

In high school and middle school, Mark Filiaggi really liked biology and history, “I wanted to major in science in college, but I’m weak in math and was worried that would be a problem.” Filiaggi ended up majoring in history and secondary education because it provided him with another scholarship that paired with another academic scholarship he had.

Even though Filiaggi is now a history teacher, he says that he was “never really felt pulled towards teaching, a degree in history and social studies just lends itself to teaching,” he also adds “to be honest, I always hated school so it’s kind of ironic I became a teacher.”

To add on to it, Filiaggi says “as a kid my dream job was to become a trashman, I thought it looked fun to ride on the backs of trucks.” However, he also explains how he doesn’t regret not “chasing” that job.

“I still kind of wish I had a job that was more physical and did something with my hands.  I like the feeling of building, fixing, or moving things,” Filiaggi explains.

Forensics teacher Kristian Jones-Knoll had a similar experience when it came to “dream jobs.” Jones-Knoll says that in high school, her dream was to be a “Division 1 Basketball coach.” However, she ended up going to school to be a Medical Technologist.

“I was in college in the mid 80’s right at the height of the Aids epidemic,” Jones-Knoll adds, “due to that, I decided my senior year that I did not want to work with blood and bodily fluids for the rest of my life, so I switched majors and graduated with a B.S. Biology.”

Starting a job in teaching science and coaching basketball in high school, Jones-Knoll said she enjoyed that enough to continue it for her career. “I have taught many different subjects of science over the years, but Forensic Science is by far my favorite class to teach.”

Chemistry teacher Kim Harris had a very slight change in what her “dream job” was. “I knew I liked biology because I liked my teacher,” she explained, “I never thought I was going to be a teacher, though.” Harris said the pull towards teaching happened when “I defended my thesis in order to earn my master’s degree, the professors all were impressed with how I presented and they asked if I had ever thought of teaching.”