Catherine Belair at work with a student.

John Greene

Thad Pickard

However, they both have a passion for education and working with young people. Belair gave up a high-powered job in the corporate world and Greene walked away from his pulpit to prepare for new careers in teaching.  Along with Thad Pickard of Maggie Valley, they are among 23 adults who are preparing for licensure through the NC TEACH (Teachers of Excellence for All Children) program at Western Carolina University.  

NC TEACH is a state-funded program started in 2000 to recruit and train mid-career adults for teaching positions in North Carolina. Since the program began, more than 1,300 people have earned their teaching licenses and taken their places at the head of classrooms in school districts throughout the state.

Greene, who is teaching at Haywood Middle Academy, said he found NC TEACH just as he was looking for a new challenge. “I’m very pleased that I made this choice. It was the right thing to do at the right time of my life,” he said. “I was more suited to come into the classroom in my mid-40s that at age 22 or 23 because of the life experiences I’ve had and the work I’ve done with young people. It seemed like a natural fit.”

Belair, a seventh-grade mathematics teacher at Flat Rock Middle School, called teaching the toughest job she’s ever had, and she said she loves it. “You can’t go into teaching thinking it’s easy. But it has huge rewards when you see a kid you never thought you could reach, responding,” she said.

Pickard, who says he avoided a career in education until he couldn’t resist, is a ninth-grade English teacher at Pisgah High School. “You know that every hour in the classroom you are changing lives. You have no idea what that will lead to, but it’s a powerful, powerful thing.”

The NC TEACH program recruits and trains highly skilled, highly motivated people who realize, after working in other professions, that they have a strong interest in becoming educators, said Janice Holt, program coordinator at Western and director of the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers.

“By encouraging their interest and supporting their lateral entry into the classroom, NC TEACH is helping to alleviate our state’s shortage of teachers,” said Holt.

At Western, participants take graduate-level courses in person, on line or through a blend of both. Those who successfully complete the coursework can earn a teaching license or a master’s degree in teaching as well as a license. Either way, they can become full-fledged teachers in North Carolina public schools. 

“You wake up every day and think about the wonderful things that will happen to you,” Pickard said. “It’s quite an experience. It’s a great calling.”

May 1 is the deadline for applications to begin the NC TEACH program at Western this summer. For more information, contact Holt at (828) 227-3310 or holt@email.wcu.edu or go to www.ceap.wcu.edu/ncteach.