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Program helps transform troops into teachers

  • Published
  • By Steve Berry
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Representatives from the Troops to Teachers program will be at the Educating the Force education fair Tuesday. The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Scott Club.

Troops to Teachers representatives will answer questions and provide information about the program, which is designed to help veterans earn teaching certification and land a job teaching.

Gunnery Sgt. Juan Lara is one local servicemember who hopes to take advantage of the Troops to Teachers program.

He first learned of the program through a television commercial.

"I saw a commercial for Troops to Teachers and I'm like 'you know what, I've worked with youth groups before back in Yuma, Ariz. and those kids needed a lot of help," Gunny Lara said. "I thought, I might as well become a teacher, and that is when I started looking into the program,"

When Gunny Lara was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma he and his wife Irene ran a youth group called Young Marines.

"The main thing was to keep them away from drugs," Gunny Lara said. "It was Marine Corps stuff so we taught them discipline and how to talk to their parents. We would go to their school and make sure they had passing grades."

At Scott, Gunny Lara is a senior enlisted advisor at U.S. Transportation Command's Joint Operational Airlift Center. He is currently enrolled at Southwestern Illinois College working on earning his associates degree in education before he pursues a bachelor's degree in education. Gunny Lara would eventually like to teach math, and ultimately become a high school principal.

He currently lives in base housing with his wife and three children.

Troops to Teacherswas established by the Department of Defense in 1994 to improve public education by recruiting and training retired servicemembers into the education field. Eligible members receive financial assistance so they can become educated and certified to teach elementary school, secondary school or vocational school.