YHS’ Mike Sommerfield retires as teacher
— well, sort of retires
Mike Sommerfield is retiring from the Yosemite High School
faculty — at least as a full-time teacher. He’ll still be around, however. Photo by — Earlene Ward
Although he will officially retire
in June, Mike Sommerfield won’t completely leave his teaching position at
Yosemite High School.
He will return to the classroom
three periods a day to teach drafting. Currently, he teaches drafting,
geography and drivers education.
Mr. Sommerfield came to YHS in
1989 after teaching for 10 years at Yreka High School in the extreme northern
area of California. He says he’s never regretted the move, although he
sometimes misses the Yreka area where, he says, “there are not a lot of
people.”
Mr. Sommerfield brings a military
background to his teaching position and he believes that has been a big
advantage.
He was a draftsman in the
military, first in active duty and then in the reserves. As a reservist, he was
able to work as a draftsman every summer, allowing him to stay current with the
field.
“No one would hire you just for
the summer,” he says, so being in the reserves was an excellent match for his
teaching career.
After serving in the active
military, Mr. Sommerfield took a 15-year break before he signed up for the
reserves. During that time, he earned a bachelor’s degree from California State
University at Los Angeles and a teaching credential from the University of
California at Berkeley. His degree was in industrial arts.
Following graduation from college, he worked in industry as
a draftsman and mechanical engineer before becoming a teacher in 1979.
Would Mr. Sommerfield recommend
the military to a young person? “In a heartbeat,” he says. He believes the
discipline and travel are the best parts of the military. During his time in
the service, he saw a great deal of the United States and some of the Far East.
He was stationed for a time at Pearl Harbor.
While in the reserves, he spent
four summers at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island where he used
his drafting skills to make charts, graphs, maps and overhead presentation
materials for the school.
He spent about six weeks each of
those summers in Rhode Island and, he says, “It was great!”
During Desert Storm, Mr. Sommerfield was recalled to
active duty. From January to August of 1991 he served as a railroad conductor
at the Naval Weapons Station in Concord.
At Yosemite High, Mr. Sommerfield
started as a Regional Occupational Program (ROP) drafting teacher, a driver’s
education teacher and an adult education teacher. Later, he started an
introductory drafting class at Oak Creek Intermediate School.
After
returning from his stint in the military in 1991, he no longer taught adult
education or the OCI class. In 1999 he started teaching a class in citizen
safety/driver education and later geography was added to his schedule.
Mr.
Sommerfield says he has always felt good about being at Yosemite High. “It has
been a very good place to work,” he says, “and I love the area.”
He and his
wife, Kathleen, live in North Fork, where she is the director of the Club YES
after-school program at North Fork Elementary. They have four adult children
and eight grandchildren.
Looking
back over his years as a teacher, Mr. Sommerfield says there have been lots of
“little special moments” with students. He particularly enjoys seeing former
students and hearing how well they have done.