Story 6 - Corey Blommel

Corey Blommel is the Director and Instructor of the Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) CNET Program and the Regional Cisco Networking Academy Coordinator. He has been teaching since 2004, is married with two children, and in his free time enjoys traveling, playing tennis, and golfing.

Moving through school was easy for him, saying that he maintained a 4.0 GPA through most of his education. At first he didn’t know if teaching was for him, but after working a part time teaching job he knew that’s what he wanted to do. He says that he is “very passionate about education,” and it shows every day in the classroom, both for the subject he teaches and for the bettering of his students. When he’s working with his students though he most enjoys when he sees students finally understand something, and have their “ah-ha” moments.

Before he started his career teaching and rose to the position of Director of an entire branch of a college, he started small. At first he was working at the help desk for an ISP, answering phone calls and reminding people to be sure everything is plugged in. Soon enough he moved up in the company to the position of Network Administrator, a position meaning he was basically in charge of the internal network for the company. In addition to his experience teaching and his work at the ISP, he’s also been a Project Manager and an IT Consultant for various other companies whose name he didn’t reveal.

Even today teaching isn’t the only thing he does, but the only details he gives about other jobs is being “involved with some industry-related projects.” I’ve heard him tell the class stories of people who exhibit “end-user behavior,” typically IT code word for an idiot or someone who has no idea what they’re doing. Some stories he’d tell are tales of caution, what not to do as an administrator. Others though are humorous in nature, of disconnecting users and placing bets on how long it is before the phone rings.

One would assume that a teacher’s biggest fear is something along the lines of armed violence or a conflict with a student. Luckily Blommel doesn’t mention any major conflicts, and his biggest fear is becoming bored teaching, like many do. But, because of the fast-moving field of IT, though, he doesn’t expect that to happen any time soon. The rate at which the material changes is so very swift that the textbooks are updated each semester with new standards and technologies, preventing students from selling any books back.

One could also assume that most people take issue with their higher-ups in some way, but not Blommel. The only complaint about ARCC that he gives is how distant the campus is from his home, in Minneapolis. For the people in the world who work jobs they hate, in cities they hate, with people they hate, they can look to the place in the world that Corey Blommel is enviously. When I asked him if he had thoughts of a different career, he told me that he’s content where he is.