A Passion for Teaching, and Teaching for Passion

Landed is an ongoing series where we ask recent graduates how things are going post-graduation.

By Dennis Krolevich ‘26

Nick Shriver ‘18

Sociology major, History minor, Legal Studies concentration
Blaine, Minn.
Currently working at Little Wound School in South Dakota as an 8th and 9th grade English and Social Studies teacher and high school football coach.

Last three things you did before your current role:

• An internship with the non-profit Project Footsteps.
• Worked at Minneapolis Parks and Recreation providing career readiness and technology proficiency programs for high school students. 
• Student-worker in Macalester’s sociology department.

What did you learn?

During my internships and employment, I learned that I like working with kids and in an educational capacity. What I also learned specifically when working in the sociology department is that it’s so cool to see your professors outside of class and get to know them better. The professors there inspired and shaped a lot of the way that I teach. Knowing them better taught me who I want to be as a teacher, which is personable and  someone who knows their students and what’s going on in their lives. 

I never thought when I was a first-year that…

I was going to be studying political science and legal studies, but ended up studying sociology in my second semester. 

In my first year, I did legal studies right away. I thought I was going to go to law school and do that whole thing. I am very thankful for those legal studies courses, because they showed me that that’s not at all what I want to do with my life. 

What has surprised you since graduation?

Even though I wasn’t in education studies and only took one ed-studies class at Macalester, I was able to hop into the role of being an effective teacher. There are some growing pains with figuring out class management and some of those other things you might have in your first year of teaching. But I think Macalester set me up with a lot of the skills, mindsets, ideas, and beliefs that I think you need to have in order to be an effective teacher. You have to be able to relate to your students. 

It’s also important to have different perspectives in the classroom. I want students to not take what I’m saying as scripture, but to ask questions. I want them to push back. I think the learning environment that I had at Macalester is what I try to replicate somewhat in the classroom.

Do you have any advice for current students? 

The best advice I can give to anyone about college is to just gut it out. If you’re having a hard time, just stick with it. A light will click for you eventually, and once it does, it’s easygoing. But you have to gut it out until you get to that point. I also recommend finding a major, a class, or just something that you love to do. Senior year, my honors paper was like 45 pages, but I loved doing it. It wasn’t a chore for me.