TRAVERSE CITY — A local educator received the 2024 “Teacher of the Year” award from the Michigan Association of Career and Technical Education.
Jared Diephouse, North Ed Career Tech instructor, was recognized last week at the Michigan Career Education Conference in Grand Rapids.
Diephouse was nominated for the statewide honor by his North Ed Career Tech colleagues, who cited Diephouse’s leadership in instructional strategy and his ability to build staff engagement and cooperation.
Pat Lamb, North Ed’s assistant superintendent of career and technical education, called Diephouse an “exemplary pupil” himself when the teacher was a Career-Tech student himself in the early 2000s.
His success story is no surprise, Lamb said.
“Jared is an exceptional educator who has a unique talent, and we’re incredibly proud of this well-deserving recognition,” Lamb said. “He continually builds great relationships with students and creates a classroom culture that’s focused on learning and developing skills that support students as they enter the workforce or seek higher education.”
Diephouse teaches power equipment in a shop setting, which includes disassembling, measuring, and reassembling engines and equipment. He started in 2012 as a paraprofessional, and worked his way into teaching full-time.
He took over his current position six years ago and earned his bachelor’s degree.
Managing family life while pursuing a degree was difficult, but Diephouse acknowledged it was a challenge well worth it.
“It was brutal,” he laughed.
He wants his students to understand challenge, too. What brings him joy as a teacher is watching them work through hurdles in the workshop.
“I love seeing kids struggle, because with struggle comes deep learning and knowledge. I can come next to them and give them ways to work through the challenge,” he said. “I’ll put something together, show them how to fix something … and then take it apart again. They hate that, but I want to see them perform the task themselves.”
He said roughly 20 percent of his students will go into the auto industry after high school, taking with them everything they learned in his courses.
Aside from the technical skills students learn, there are other skills that he hopes they attain: “Professionalism. I’m a stickler for it. I want them to follow a dress code, for example, but I do reward them for following it. We’re instilling the expectation that they’re going to encounter in the real world.”
“I would love for all my kids to go to college or a tech school,” he added. “I just want them to do something, and not just disappear after high school when they leave here.”
When Diephouse was a student, he knew that, to some extent, he wanted to be working with students. “I told the principal then that I would either be starting my own business, or teaching.”
So his walk through the Career-Tech doors took him back in time. “Coming back, in the same room I was in … it brought back all those memories that I made here as a student.”
Former students have reached out to congratulate him on his award, which means a lot to him.
“To have the support of my colleagues really blows me away,” Diephouse said. “My focus is on the students, and while I love the staff here, I don’t do this for the recognition. We’re just a big family.”