Out of the roughly 120 teachers at Freedom High School, one is chosen every year by their peers to be granted the honor of Teacher of the Year. This year on October 13^th, the same day as the United States Navy’s birthday, Captain Theodore Wasylkiw, known around campus as “Captain,” was named Freedom High School’s Teacher of the Year.

Even though Captain earned more votes than any other teacher, he didn’t expect to win.

“It was Ms. Guida’s fault,” claimed Captain.

Captain believed that the award should go to a traditional teacher, but English Teacher Toni Guida took it upon herself to campaign for him. She printed out flyers and posters which were placed in the teacher’s lounge. He was very humbled by the support he received.

“It was a nice honor,” Captain added.

Before becoming a teacher at Freedom, he served in the United States Navy.

“I’m a retired Navy Captain, I served 22 years and worked as a helicopter pilot,” Captain stated.

At first, Captain didn’t plan on being Freedom High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) leader after he left the service. He always thought that when he left the Navy, he would become a math teacher. However, he was attracted to the NJROTC program after he spent time with the program in college.

“I did college ROTC and saw that high school NJROTC was another option, so I decided to join,” Captain said.

Captain has been a teacher for eleven years, all of them spent teaching NJROTC at Freedom High School. He enjoys leading a very helpful program that finds ways to benefit others.

“We do as much as we can for the school and community, but I also teach important life stuff,” Captain added.

Overall, Captain is honored to be Teacher of the Year at Freedom High School and looks forward to what the future holds.