PORTAGE, MI. — One man finally found his calling after four years with the Portage School District. From secretary to teacher, the Grow Your Own program helped Austin Giles achieve his dream.
"I had this desire after working with students with special needs to be a special education teacher. I didn't know how it was going to happen," he told FOX 17.
Giles says the road to becoming a special education teacher wasn't always easy. "I asked around the the local universities, even over at Michigan State, 'How do I become a teacher?' It was all, 'Oh, well, you can go back for four years of undergrad and get a degree in education.'"
With a bachelor's in French under his belt, Austin says doing another four-year degree wasn't a "viable option." When the district announced it's Grow Your Own in 2022— a program that provides financial assistance to current employees that want to become certified teachers, he knew he couldn't pass it up.
"So night classes at Western Michigan, my wife had three kids that she was helping raise, classes started at five, six o'clock, and that's when dinner and bedtime was," he said.
From August 2022 through December of 2023, Giles missed a lot of dinner time with family while pursuing his degree through Western's Accelerated Special Education Master's Plus Certification program. In the end— it was worth it.
"So, aside from being able to help my students, I can help my family and my children come through this district as well," Giles said.
After graduating from WMU on December 16, two days later, he was living the dream at Portage Northern High School.
"I see it on their faces every day that I'm making an impact. I see it in the grades, I see it in in the success that they have both in and out of school. And really that's that's the best thing I could ask for in a job," he said.
For more information on the Grow Your Own initiative, click here.
