By Shahzeen Nasim
Former district Teacher of the Year and current Cal High engineering teacher John Korzick will end his teaching career after instructing an English class in China this fall.
Korzick, who will retire from the district in June, has taught in China for the past two summers with his wife, and is going back in September to teach a graduate-level course at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.
The Wuhan region is about 550 miles from Shanghai, roughly the distance between California and Utah.
When Korzick and his wife first looked into teaching abroad, they came across Teach for Friendship, a non-profit organization that offers Chinese university students conversational English classes.
Since then, Teach for Friendship has been sponsoring people to teach undergraduate students, who are, like the rest of the Chinese community, extremely appreciative of their teachers.
“Teachers in China are highly respected,” said Korzick. “You’re like a rock star.”
After September, Korzick is considering spending the rest of the year teaching in China.
“They’re always after you to stay longer,” said Korzick.
Though Korzick has only taught at Cal for six years, he has created the Engineering and Design Academy, earned the district’s Teacher of the Year award, and coached freshman football and men’s lacrosse. He started Cal’s men’s lacrosse program in 2002.
In his short time at Cal, he has made big changes and his absence next year will be felt.
“Mr. Korzick spends so much of his own money on the engineering equipment and that’s why as high school students we have the unique opportunity of working with a lot of high-end machines,” senior Justin Koos said.
Korzick is also involved in a Chevron partnership that provides funds for equipment and software, and allows Chevron employee mentors to offer teacher training in the engineering discipline.
“John is one of those educators who is always thinking out of the box,” said Superintendent Steven Enoch in a Patch.com interview. “His fearless approach to new ideas and innovation has led to amazing opportunities for both students and faculty members.”
A large motivation to teach in China is that as a teacher, Korzick has a unique opportunity to teach in and outside of the classroom.
When he would go out to dinner, Korzick would take a pictoral dictionary and use it to order food.
“If I wanted a chicken, I would point at the chicken and they would want to know how to say ‘chicken’ in English,” he said. “In this way, you’re teaching the whole town.”
