When someone asks math teacher Ernesto Diaz why he decided to switch from his successful previous career to teaching, he says, without missing a beat, “I’m here because I choose to be, not because I have to be.”

Diaz represents only one of the many teachers whose high levels of dedication to their jobs come from the experiences of holding previous or current additional careers.

John Blaber

Although many may know John Blaber as the English Department Teacher Leader, fewer know that he was once a leader in a very different profession.

Before teaching, Blaber worked launching new technology companies. His last job was vice president of marketing for Coremetrics, a company that he helped launch.

Blaber also worked in a variety of fields before choosing to pursue teaching. His first job was working for the Department of Commerce as an International Trade Specialist, with a focus on Southeast Asia relations. He also spent six months working at the White House in the U.S. Trade Representatives Office.

Blaber then moved to the private sector, working in telecommunications. In 1996, he moved to Northern California and started working in launching start-up technology and software companies.

Although he was very successful in his many fields, Blaber said that he decided to stop and reconsider what he was doing after Sept. 11, 2001.

“My daughter was three years old, and I wanted her to group up in a world that I would feel good passing on to her as a legacy,” Blaber said. “When September 11th happened, I felt like I lived in a world where adults addressed their grievances with each other by flying planes into skyscrapers, and I realized that working as a technology executive, I wasn’t doing anything to make the world a place more like the world I wanted my daughter to grow up in.”

According to Blaber, it was then he decided to switch to a more community service-oriented career.

“I thought that as a teacher, I could work with young people and maybe help make the world a slightly better place,” Blaber said. “I know that sounds idealistic, but that’s why I did it.”

Although he made such a drastic change, Blaber said he feels he made the right one.

“I have no regrets. I feel like I finally got the job I was born to do,” Blaber said. “It’s been 11 years, and I’m never going back.”

Ernesto Diaz

Twenty years ago, math teacher Ernesto Diaz felt most comfortable operating in a lab, often one in a different country, working on the development of technology that is commonplace today but innovative then.

Today, Diaz feels most comfortable behind a desk, helping students learn tricks and skills to solve the hardest algebra and geometry problems.

Before teaching, Diaz held several positions engineering, technology development, and software companies.

“At that time, we were working in the laboratories, and we were among the few people on the planet who were sending emails to each other,” Diaz said. “Long before there were computers in homes, we were writing emails. My first email was sometime around February 1989.”

According to Diaz, he really enjoyed working in technology development.

“We were working on the development of things like wireless technologies, the first cellular and mobile systems,” Diaz said. “I worked on the first projects that eventually allowed laptops and other devices to connect to the Internet without a cable. So things that are now normal — for us it was just a bunch of people working in the labs dreaming about the future.”

Diaz’s wide array of jobs brought him all around the world, which satiated his passion for travel. He lived and worked in a multitude of places, including Holland, Madrid, Ireland, Scotland, China, South America, and New York.

Similar to Blaber, Diaz said that he really started to consider changing professions after September 11th.

“For a while I had been very successful and very happy in my career, but I felt that I needed to do something that was meaningful in society, something that was a little more tangible than just the success of a company,” Diaz said. “And I think September 11th enhanced that idea.”

Diaz decided to pursue teaching because of his experiences with the Jesuits, which are known for their emphasis on education.

“I’ve studied with Jesuits for most of my life, so they’re my roots,” Diaz said. “I wanted to dedicate my life to something that made a positive impact, and the logical choice was education.”

Before teaching at Redwood, Diaz also held teaching positions in other locations. However, said he chose to come to Redwood because he believed it was the place that he could have the biggest impact.

“I thought if I could come to a place where I could serve as a model for people that would eventually be leaders in society, I would have a greater chance to have a bigger impact,” Diaz said. “And I’ve loved doing just that.”

Virginia Ferguson

“I remember the last job I did, which was some bank commercial. I was driving to Wollongong in a flood to do this commercial, and I realized, ‘You know, I don’t really want to do this anymore.’ I wanted to do something that was more literary, that had some depth to it,” said English teacher Virginia Ferguson.

Ten years ago, Ferguson moved to Sydney, Australia, pursuing a career in acting.

“When I got to Sydney, I went to an audition, and I got the job. And it was thousands of dollars to be in a champagne commercial – a champagne commercial. And that’s how I got my equity card which is really important to be able to work professionally for decently paid jobs,” she said. “So in one  year, I got an equity card, I had a new husband, I had two step-children, and I lived in a new country and a new city.”

Now, Ferguson uses her acting background and experience in her classroom to make her sophomore English and Dramatic Literature classes unique.

“I now use my previous career all the time in class,” Ferguson said. “The skills and knowledge I acquired about plays help my students understand more. My practical experience in the theater really taught me to closely read, not to skim things, to look for the details, which I can pass on to students.”

According to Ferguson, she pursued acting because it was a lifelong dream.

For approximately 15 years, Ferguson acted in a variety of commercials, stage productions, and TV shows.

“Although I wanted to be successful, looking back on it now it’s the doing of it that’s so important, to try and fulfill a dream that you’ve got even though the outcome isn’t what you want,” Ferguson said. “I never regret that I gave it years and no one’s ever seen anything that I did, except for a small handful of people.”

Ferguson said that she realized her initial career wasn’t truly what she was interested in, and as her career in acting progressed, she began to find that she wanted to switch careers.

“Gradually, I realized I was more interested in the writing aspect of scripts,” Ferguson said. “I found I was more literary minded rather than mindless media and commercials. I didn’t like doing them, I didn’t like the world of that.”