One of the many core educational values in life is the ability to interpret English language and literature through reading and writing. It is something that has been taught to American students since the start of the country. However, those who teach this subject are often overlooked and underappreciated.

Among this large group of passionate and kind hearted educators stands Mr. Yonan. Yonan is currently an English I and English II teacher at Ripon High School, who has taught at Ripon for three years. However, Yonan didn’t always want to be an English teacher.

“I actually wanted to be in business. I wanted to do marketing. I actually got a marketing job, sat in the cubicle, did all of that and hated it,” Yonan states

He realized, in junior college, that his true passion was actually teaching. 

“I started tutoring on the side for some money, and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the idea of helping people understand the concepts and structures of all of those things.”

Although Yonan didn’t discover his interest for teaching until college, he has always been fond of reading.

“I have always had an affinity to English growing up,” he adds, “It’s just something that I’ve always been keen to. So, I thought, why not teach a subject that I’m good at?”

As most of history’s greatest teachers do, Yonan takes every challenge as an invitation to improve his teaching. He even views his past lesson plans as an opportunity to enhance the lectures that he is teaching.

Yonan expresses, “I need to be changing what I’m doing and updating my information. I can’t be using something from the nineties because the information is outdated at that point. I need to update, and that’s the struggle [of teaching]. But it’s also the beauty of teaching. It’s always evolving and always changing.”

Yonan is the epitome of kindness within the realm of mentors, and he inspires many students on campus to follow their dreams.