Mr. Don DeAngelo, a 20-year AP history teacher at Cathedral Catholic High School, is excited to announce his new part-time job as a professor at Grossmont College in San Diego.

After a seemingly endless 15-year process of applying for the position of history professor at local junior colleges, Mr. DeAngelo finally has accomplished a major professional goal.

“College students want to be in my class. I get more flexibility teaching the class, and at the college level, I can emphasize my strengths as long as I’m giving the students the skills and basic content,” Mr. DeAngelo said.

Colleges searching for professors are more likely to hire someone who is professionally skilled in his or her field, or has been teaching the course for many years. Furthermore, colleges prefer individuals who have previous experience teaching college students.

“What helped me in the Grossmont interview when I was applying for the job was that I have been teaching a college-level class for twenty years,” Mr. DeAngelo said. “[The college] wants you to feel comfortable with your ability to manage a classroom.”

Like CCHS, Grossmont College’s academic year is divided into two semesters. In his first semester at Grossmont, Mr. DeAngelo is teaching Early American U.S. History on Mondays and Wednesdays in the late afternoons, during which time he will have three separate evaluations. He hopes the evaluations will lead to Grossmont offering him a spot in the spring term. The spring course Mr. DeAngelo would be applying to is U.S. History from 1865 to the present.

Teaching both high schoolers and college students on the same day may seem like a burden, but Mr. DeAngelo enjoys the challenge. He loves both of his jobs, and he is proud of his accomplishments in the classroom, helping many students through the years to pass the AP exam.

“I really enjoy working at Cathedral. And if all I do is teach part time at Grossmont College and full time at Cathedral, that’s great,” Mr. DeAngelo said. “Cathedral is an awesome place to be, and it’s [wonderful] to have such a great place to work.”

As a high school and college teacher, Mr. DeAngelo works hard to push all of his students to the next level in their high school and college educations. And with his new job as professor, Mr. DeAngelo is an inspiration to high school teachers to push the envelope even further.