Travis Prendergast, Educational Coordinator at Pivot North Bay, may have only just finished teaching his first semester at Pivot, but he is already eager to continue helping his students reach their goals and potential.
After graduating with a degree in Social Sciences from California State University of Chico, Travis decided he wanted to teach because of the significant, personal relationships he built with his own teachers in middle school.
“I had a handful of instructors who went beyond the role of just being an educator and actually served as a mentor or someone I could look up to,” Travis said.
In middle school, most students are very impressionable and Travis felt the relationships he had with his teachers were critical to his own development. Rather than simply discussing his schoolwork, Travis was also able to share interests with them and the instructors, in turn, invested in him as a young adult.
“It truly just showed that they cared,” Travis said. “As a teacher, that’s what I wanted to resemble.”
Travis resonated with the way Pivot makes it a priority to accommodate all types of learning styles and any kind of student because of his younger brother. Travis’ brother also had some disadvantages to learning in a traditional setting and attended a school similar to Pivot, where he was given the right resources to thrive.
“That’s what drove me to go ahead and take this job, because I could help students who have challenges like my brother did and teach them that they can be successful, even though they are taking a different route,” Travis said.
After hitting the ground running in September, Travis had a plan to ensure he was connecting with all of his students virtually. Though it’s tougher to build genuine relationships over a computer, Travis felt his determination was worth seeing his students take initiative over their education and find ways to flourish at their schoolwork. He is ready to take on his second semester at Pivot with learned experience and practiced strategies for his students.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them succeed and progress onto their next grade level,” Travis said. “I just truly enjoy seeing my students examine their own success that was due to their own motivation and their own drive.”
When he is not teaching, Travis enjoys fishing and hiking in new places.