Curtis von Trapp, a teacher at Skyline High School, says teaching at Skyline has “restored his faith in humanity.”

Mr. von Trapp previously worked at Echo Glen Children’s center, a juvenile prison where kids are sent to serve sentences for committing serious crimes as well as focus on rehabilitation. Oftentimes these kids came from backgrounds that involved gang affiliations, so working at Skyline has been a different experience.

“Working with a certain section of the population, you come to think everyone is like that,” said von Trapp. “This has opened me up to the other side of the spectrum where people live healthy lives, have healthy goals and have a lot of love and support in their lives.”

Finding a job to get excited for everyday isn’t always easy. However, Mr. von Trapp has found his “why?” at Skyline through the impact of meeting and getting to know his students.

“Definitely what gets me up in the morning is knowing that I get to come in and work with people who have a bright future and who are going to pursue it,” said von Trapp.

Mr. von Trapp knew that he needed a career change, but was struggling to find his passion. With some encouragement and support from his wife, Mr. von Trapp took the risk of becoming a teacher.

“I feel very lucky to be at Skyline,” said von Trapp.

Coming out of college, Mr. von Trapp wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with his life. All he knew was that he didn’t want to do anything related to what he majored in. After some brief exploration, he started out working for Katmai National Park as an interpretive ranger. Two years later, he found himself moving to Washington and working for Echo Glen. 

Mr. von Trapp ended up working at Echo Glen for 16 years. In his last two years, Mr. von Trapp moved to the department of corrections. He worked as a Community Corrections Officer which involved monitoring people on parole and probation. A year later, he transferred to the Bellevue location, but found himself landing a teaching position at Skyline High School.

“I went from taking people to jail up until the middle of August and two weeks later I was in a classroom,” said von Trapp.

To add to the craziness, Mr. von Trapp says that he was provided with materials for the class but not much of a curriculum.

As a first-year teacher, that can be a difficult task to overcome, so Mr. von Trapp just had to make the most of it.

“It was a lot of being willing to try things, being willing to fail and hopefully finding some learning and interest in that,” said von Trapp.

Nonetheless, Mr. von Trapp found a way to make it work and came out of it with a positive outlook.

“It was overwhelming but thrilling at the same time to have the independence to come up with different things to do in class, as well as different ways to learn and teach,” said von Trapp.

In only his third year as a teacher, Mr. von Trapp already has numerous goals for the Criminal Justice and Police Forensics programs as interest begins to grow. As a result of some of his goals, Skyline will be adding an Advanced Police Forensics class for Mr. von Trapp to teach. The class will work to enhance some of the experiences in Police Forensics 1 and 2 while also covering some new topics.

Mr. von Trapp’s career path is different from others, but serves as a reminder for students struggling to figure out what they want to do with their lives that they have plenty of time to find their passion.