Faulkner decided to pursue his dreams after Sept. 11

"I'm not your story," humbly said Mike Faulkner, as he compared his story to those of his collegues. "Mine is merely interesting because it's unusual."

At first glance, it looks like any other classroom in Alleghany High School, students' desks, a blackboard. One item distinguishes the room as Faulkner's, a see-through prism- shaped award he received from his previous employer, the Oracle Corporation. Sitting on his desk, it is used in his math classes to show a perfect prism. But to him, it represents where he came from.

In 1982, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics from the School of Literature, Science and the Arts. In 1995, he received a master's degree in business administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati.

After working with an aerospace engineering firm and Airborne Express between degrees, he was hired by the Oracle Corportation, working with Fortune 500 companies across the southeast to implement Oracle technologies.

In 2001, to do his part to assist with the corporation's academic initiative, he volunteered time at Livingstone College, which he still does to this day.

"Candidly, I've got to give all the credit to Oracle, as well as the Appalachian Transition to Teaching Program, because if it hadn't been for Oracle and the ATTP, I probably wouldn't be here because both of those opportunities make this possible," Faulkner said.

Featured in the spring 2004 edition of Appalachian Today, Faulkner is one of 4,300 professionals in the state to leave their career to start a career teaching in public schools. This lateral entry teacher process is one way the state is attempting to fill the gap in the on-going teacher shortage.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my years at Oracle, a very exciting, fascinating company, the second-largest computer software corporation in the world — or largest, depending on how you measure such things. It was one of the reasons, after I received my master's from Xavier, I went to work for Oracle. Before I knew it, five or six years had passed. It was really neat."

On Sept. 11, 2001, Americans' lives were changed forever. It made people look within themselves for answers. It was at this time Faulkner decided it was time to seriously pursue teaching.

"I would say that Sept. 11 really sparked it in me. Up until that point and time, I had gotten my master's and tucked it away and hadn't really used it."

Sitting in John F. Kennedy airport in February 2002, Faulkner had an epiphany.

"The truth of the matter is, shortly after Sept. 11, I decided if I was serious about going into education, now is the time. I'll never forget it. I'd just come back from a meeting in New York.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back