One of the newest assets to the Kearsley Community School District is the high school’s economics teacher, Mr. Michael Whalen.

Whalen said his experience here so far has been great and he has had many opportunities to grow and work toward becoming a “gifted” educator.

Whalen graduated from Mt. Morris High School and is a UM-Flint graduate, where he received his bachelor’s degree in social studies.

He is now studying in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan where he is working on his master’s degree in educational leadership and policy.

During the 2013-2014 school year, Whalen student taught for Mr. Andy Nester, political science teacher, who Whalen also said is his mentor. Nester advocated for Whalen to be hired.

“During the time he student taught,” Nester said, “I found out he was an intelligent, hardworking, goal-driven, young teacher who is concerned about helping students.”

At 24, Whalen is the youngest teacher at the high school.

“I like being the youngest teacher, I have a fresh perspective on education and can be relatable to students,” Whalen said.

At age 18, Whalen was elected the youngest member of the Mt. Morris Board of Education where he is a secretary and helps make policies, set policies, and approve contracts.

Nester said that Whalen’s public service “shows a lot of leadership.”

Whalen has also renewed the Forensics Club.

He said this year was a trial run for the club, in order to get a feel for everything, and next year the club plans to join the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association, an organization that promotes educational school speech and debate activities and interscholastic competition.

One thing that contributed to Whalen’s journey to become a teacher was a trip to Finland.

In 2013-2014, Whalen studied the Finland educational system abroad at the University of Helsinki. According to Whalen, Finland has one of the highest performing education systems in the world, and he wanted to explore it firsthand.

“It was a great experience. I met lots of people with different perspectives on the world,” Whalen said.

Whalen said that there is a lot to love about Kearsley, but to identify one thing, he loves the diversity of the student population.

“Diversity in education is something that is important to me because it helps students be exposed to experiences and culture that they may have never been exposed to,” Whalen said.

Whalen said his favorite thing about being a teacher is the daily interaction with students and the opportunity to watch them grow into young adults.

Whalen’s students appreciate his effort to interact with them as well.

Junior Tyler Goodall said that Whalen is his favorite teacher.

“I like him because he helps me out a lot,” Goodall said.

Even though Whalen is in his first year of teaching, the profession has caught his attention.

He said, “I plan to have a very long career here at Kearsley and cannot imagine myself doing anything else with my life besides teaching.”