After 25 years of working in sales and management, Jim Harari realized that he wanted to make more of an impact, starting by teaching at DVHS. Prior to this, Harari was in a career miles apart from teaching, he worked as a sales engineer. While Harrari was looking for a career change he would never have expected himself to transition into teaching high school mathematics.
“I really enjoyed managing people, your primary role was to help teach, cultivate, and develop [people]. I’m teaching math here, but [similar to my previous work] I’m also mentoring and helping develop people,” Harari said.
Even though being an educator came with its cons and responsibilities, it was rewarding at the same time. Harari fell in love with teaching and being able to spend time in the classroom with the students.
“Connecting with the students is my favorite thing. Just being able to talk with them about their weekend is the part that I really like about being a teacher. I also like when I’m able to help make a difference in people, it’s really rewarding as a teacher to see change in a student.” Harari says.
Teaching hasn’t always been easy for Harari; quarantine was a struggle for him since not only did he have to learn how to effectively teach online, but it was also a struggle due to his inability to build a relationship with the students and see their success.
“When we did remove school, I really missed connecting with the students because you joined and left just for math. You can’t really chew the fat in a one-inch zoom square.” Harari says.
Outside of school, Harari is a family man; he is happily married and has a 5 year old daughter. Settling down for Harari was “unusual,” as he was used to constantly flying around the country for when he worked in sales and management.
“Right now I have a 5 year-old daughter at home, and so I’m trying to do less things at school so I can be home more when she gets home and more available to hang out with her.” Harari says.
Harari specifically likes Dougherty because he feels that the students here are compelled to learn and are diligent with their work. As an effect of his job and the environment at DVHS, Harari has been able to build stronger relationships with his coworkers more than he could’ve done in business.
“He’s given me great ideas on how I can rework or change my teaching for my students, and he’s definitely helped me become a better teacher even though I’ve been teaching for longer than he has.” Harari’s coworker, Evangeline Sugden said.
