Rob Hellebrand
for some photos of Rob, see the link on the bottom of the page
I was born in Torrance, California, and spent the first four years of my life in Lawndale, California. My dad then got transferred to the FAA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and so we moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, where I grew up. I attended Rock Creek Forest Elementary School from kindergarten through fifth grade. We then got bussed our final year to Somerset Elementary. I then went to Leland Junior High School, which I understand doesn't exist anymore-- I think it's now a parking lot or something. In 1978, my dad got a job in Brazil, so we moved to Sao Jose dos Campos, near Sao Paolo, for 18 months. Afterward, we came back to our house, and I attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, where my grades were rather mediocre.
However, my test scores were good enough to get me into the University of Maryland, where I finally got the spark back regarding education that I had lost somewhere in my pre-adolescence. I ended up with a B.A. in Psychology, but I realized I couldn't rightfully charge anyone $95.00/hour to talk to me, and decided my real love would be for teaching.
I was set to attend San Diego State University to obtain my teaching credentials, when I came in contact with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and decided that I should join that church. So my plans shifted to the Church's school, Brigham Young University.
While there, I decided to serve a mission for the church, and ended up being called to Norway, where I served for two years, teaching the gospel in Norwegian. It was a great experience.
I returned to BYU and finished up my studies in Social Studies Education. Thereafter I decided to move back East, as I hadn't seen my family on a regular basis in a long time. I got a job as a math and social studies teacher at a middle school right across the street from my parent's house.
While I was there in Arlington, Virginia, my old friend Sandy Kyle, whom I knew from Norway and BYU, came home from her stint in the Peace Corps in Guinea Bissau, West Africa. Actually, she was sent home on a medical emergency, with a bout of kidney stones. All medically evacuated Peace Corps folks were sent to Arlington, and we met again for the third time in six years.
This time, sparks flew that didn't before, and when Sandy decided that she wanted to pursue a veterinary degree at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, I decided that I may have no better place to go than Corvallis, Oregon.
We got married in the Washington, D.C. Temple, and then bought a tiny house in Corvallis. Our family grew, first with a dog named Lincoln, then with a cat named, ... well, ... no particular name there ever really worked, so we just called him Kitty, and then Gabriel in 1997 and Silas in 2000. With the family growing, we moved into a bigger home that felt like a palace after that old one. Our daughter, Eve, came along in January 2003.
Teaching has been enjoyable. In Corvallis, I primarily substitute taught, and became known at Corvallis High School as "the Sweater Guy," as I guess I had acquired a rather large assortment of sweaters when I went to Norway. I particularly enjoyed Corvallis High School, and became quite a fan of the Spartans. The students and staff were very kind. I also taught at Sylvan Learning Center for two and a half years, and began teaching online classes through CoolSchool. All in all, I often found myself working over twelve hours a day. I appreciated the work, but I didn't especially enjoy coming home at about bedtime for the kids, nor the uncertain schedule of a substitute teacher.
It was pretty apparent that social studies teachers were a dime a dozen, and I explored the possibility of adding some endorsements to my teaching license. I took some Praxis teaching exams in math and English, which combined with my two plus years of math and English teaching at Sylvan Learning Center. The test scores came back surprisingly high (some good guessing) and this was sufficient to add math and English endorsements to my license. I even obtained the status of "Highly Qualified Teacher" in all three endorsements, in accordance with the No Child Left Behind federal act.
With that we went into high gear in the job search efforts so that we could obtain a more regular schedule. A nationwide search brought many interviews and offers, and we decided to accept a math position at Clifton Middle School in Covington, Virginia. The cross country move was something of an uprooting experience, as we had really grown fond of Corvallis and its people, but it was nice to be closer to family members who were in the East. We found wonderful people in Southwest Virginia, and bought a beautiful mountain home with several acres of running around room.
After teaching at the middle school level for a couple of years, I wanted to try teaching at the university level, which would require advancing my education. I applied to several PhD history programs and received a couple of enticing acceptance letters. However, when Claremont Graduate University featured not only a history program, but also a Mormon Studies program (in its embryonic stages) called the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies in its School of Religion, they may as well have offered a Bob Griese Chair of Football Studies or an Elton John Chair of Music Studies; the program seemed tailor made for me. So I enrolled in a dual degree program at CGU, in both history and religion.
So California, here we came. On the way here, I received a call from a principle at a high school in Victorville, California, asking me if I would like to take an English position. I said, "Sure," but I told him I had a bit more experience teaching math. So he offered me a math position. I thought, "What a wonderful way to pay for graduate school, to have an actual job (with a $20,000 raise over what I was getting in Virginia)." However, Victorville is a 60 mile drive from Claremont, so I do need to wake up at 4:15 AM to get to work on time, and I am somewhat limited in what classes I can take since I am working during the day. But the program is wonderful at Claremont; I am particularly excited to have Richard L. Bushman coming in as the Chair of the program, and I had a successful year teaching Algebra I and Algebra II to tenth graders in Victorville, so I will continue doing the same thing next school year.
Thanks for visiting!
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