This week’s Michigan Lottery Excellence in Education winner is Dustin Cornelius from Niles Senior High School.
Q: Why did you decide to go into teaching?
A: I was engaged to be married and I needed to make some money. My friend said you should substitute teach. Two weeks into it, I started to realize how I was impacting kids as a substitute teacher. But I was like, I can’t tell my future wife I’d like to go back to school, so I actually went into sales for a while. One day I was, I just wasn’t, I didn’t feel fulfilled, and I was talking to my wife on the phone. I heard a school bus go behind me and I heard some kid yell out, “Hey, Mr. Cornelius!” That kid recognized who I was. And I went back and told my boss, I’m going to put in my two weeks and I went back to become a teacher.
Dustin from Niles Senior High School receives a 2,000 dollar check from Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli. Excellence in Education Awards sponsored by the Michigan Lottery, providing more than 29 billion dollars to public education since 1972.