COLUMBIA, S.C. — Chief Petty Officer James Harris has at all times had a ardour for service, however after 20 years, 5 months and 4 days, he determined to retire from the Navy and enter the classroom.
"The NJROTC program is management improvement and there is some ways of getting management improvement, together with group service,” stated Harris. “Anytime you serve another person apart from your self is a constructive factor."
Harris says he discovered the exhausting means in regards to the significance of maturity and progress."I want, once I was a teen, that I had somebody offering that sort of management and mentorship to me that I did not have,” stated Harris. “I made some errors and I've gone via and seen just a few issues, however this the place I’m speculated to be and is I am speculated to be doing.""Chief Harris may be very collaborative,” stated Kevin Hasinger, Dreher Excessive Faculty Principal.
“He is very energetic and he actually does the work of about two folks proper now, and he is simply dynamic,” stated Hasinger. “He is prepared to do no matter it takes for teenagers, and he put the child first."
After we stopped by to shock Chief Harris because the News19 Instructor of the Week, his cadets had been joyful to see their chief acknowledged for all his exhausting work.
“He is a instructor, he is a mentor,” stated Dorthanius Slade. “He places in so many hours inside and outdoors of college, however he is greater than only a instructor. He has sort of grew to become like a father determine for me these final 4 years, and I am actually going to overlook him once I graduate."
Slade is a senior at Dreher Excessive Faculty in Richland County Faculty District One and has spent all 4 years within the NJROTC program below the command of Chief Harris."Generally you simply want a bit push,” stated Slade. “I feel that he is been a extremely huge push issue for me to at all times do my greatest inside and outdoors of the classroom and to take care of my lecturers, get a level and do one thing with my life and provides again to my group."
The NJROTC program has advanced over time, however one factor stays the identical: Chief Harris’s loyalty and dedication."I really like all of the cadets in this system, and I attempt to present that each single day,” stated Harris. “Even once I'm on them and I am exhausting on them, it, it is coming from the fitting place."
That’s why Chief James Harris is our News19 Instructor of the Week.
If you realize a instructor like Chief Harris who deserves to be acknowledged for her exhausting work within the classroom, you may e-mail us at TOW@WLTX.com.
