***Story update: Sam and fellow National Guard members have now returned home after the D.C. deployment
Most of the time, Sam Whitehead serves as a math teacher at Rowan County High School in Morehead, Kentucky. But these days he’s experiencing his other role as Second Lieutenant Sam Whitehead, a member of the Kentucky National Guard. And the Guard is allowing Sam to continue his teaching duties by video from Washington, D.C., where he and fellow soldiers are protecting the U.S. Capitol Complex.
“I have a duty to my country and my state, and I have a duty to my students back in the community. It’s all just kind of wired in me. It comes from just caring about what you’re doing, taking pride in your work – and I don’t look at it as just my duty, I do it because I want to.” And that can involve some pretty long days, but it’s worth it.
Sam teaches 12th grade math primarily, but also has one 9th grade class, as well as college-level algebra. He knows the students who are going on to college will need these skills. “It’s my job to do everything I can to prepare them for that.” And Sam is always open to follow-up questions from his students and he efforts to respond in an hour or two, “I can find time to get back to them in a timely manner, so they’re not just waiting all day on me.” Sometimes the students even send him a screenshot of just where they’re stuck in a math problem - and he guides the way to handle it via a short video message back to them.
Sam is appreciative that both the high school administration and the National Guard are supportive of what he’s doing. As a result, “I’m set up for success. I’m set up to provide my soldiers and my students the resources they need to be successful.”
It’s clear Sam Whitehead is a positive guy and he has some thoughts about staying positive, which you can hear in our podcast below:
Note: CBRN stands for: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist