Nick Horner is a Potosi alumni who graduated in 2017 and is now living his best life in New York. Nick was involved in many clubs in high school, and in his words, “I ran the school.” Nick was the president of the student council, National Honor Society, and environmental club, and was a part of FFA. Nick wasn’t just a part of all the clubs; he did many different things to help the younger students in elementary school. He would go and help tutor a couple of classes throughout his day. Nick enjoyed tutoring because he got to watch all the students get the “ah-ha” moment when they finally understood what they were doing.
During Nick's junior year of high school, he decided he wanted to help students outside of class. Nick started to help out a study group after school where students could stay and do their homework. Nick helped with the study group for six years and only stopped once he graduated from college. Nick also taught religion for nine years at SS Andrew School. He started teaching religion because he needed confirmation hours, but he slowly grew to love teaching it. “Wednesday became my favorite night of the week,” Nick said. Teaching religion started his love for teaching.
After Nick fell in love with helping students and making a difference, he decided to go to college at UW-Platteville, where he majored in early/middle childhood education, grades 1-8, and minored in mathematics. While Nick was in college, he student-taught at Cassville in second-, third-, and sixth-grade classes. After he graduated from college, he went to work at Winskill Elementary in Lancaster as a third-grade mathematics teacher.
During his time at Winskill, he took a trip on a whim to New York. Nick said he remembers sitting at home bored during spring break thinking about what he could be doing instead. During this spring break, he was going to just stay home and save some money, but instead on Monday night he booked a flight to New York and left the next day, returning on Thursday. Nick fell in love with New York the moment he got there. “I remember looking down from one of the skyscrapers and seeing how small a person is in a city.”
After his year in Lancaster, Nick decided to move to New York. Once he was in New York, he did not start a teaching job immediately, so he got a job as a server. Nick took some time to get a teaching job because he wasn't sure if he would like being so far away from Potosi. After working as a server for a month he decided to start working at Success Academy as a first-grade integrated co-teaching (ICT) teacher because he missed the classroom. Nick worked at Success Academy for a year, but he decided to move to Ascend as a fourth-grade ICT teacher. Teaching in New York has been a different experience for Nick. One of the big differences is that the schools don’t have a playground. When the students have recess, they just play in the parking lot. The students Nick teaches are not just from the United States; they are from all over the world, but many of them are from the Caribbean. Nick also had to get used to New York not being community-based. Around Potosi and Cassville everyone knows everyone, but in New York, it is not like that.
Nick didn’t just have to get used to the differences in the schools, but also life in general. In Potosi, Nick would drive everywhere he went, but now that he is in New York, he doesn’t even have a car. Nick will either walk where he is going or use the subway. The first time he visited the city, he had to figure his way around the subways by himself.
Through his time in New York, Nick has made many new friends to add to the ones back home. Nick loved his life in a small town but really found that his social self should be in a big city.