Marshall finds success at Nyssa High School
Sunday, January 7, 2007 7:23 AM PST
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| Jennifer Colton | Argus Observer
Business teacher Rollie Marshall works with Nick Cuniga (left), 15, and Alma Rogel, 16, at Nyssa High School Thursday. Marshall, who worked as a banker for 20 years, is expanding business learning at the school in a variety of ways. |
Jennifer Colton
Argus Observer
Nyssa
Trying to find a common link between bottled water, computer games, slushies and football could be difficult - unless you know Nyssa High School's Rollie Marshall.
Marshall, a Nyssa High School business teacher, is the common link - using each of the above subjects in his classes or when he coaches on the football field. Marshall said teaching was his first career choice, but one college presentation changed his mind.
“I was a banker for 20 years,” Marshall said. “When I graduated from Wallowa High School, I wanted to be a P.E. teacher.”
His plans were “sidetracked” during a field trip to hear about programs offered at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton.
“I had to decide on the way down Cabbage Hill what I wanted to listen to,” he said. “I knew that I didn't want to do auto tech and I didn't want to do nursing, so I chose to listen to business. I was really impressed with their accounting program - I ended up getting a two-year degree and went immediately to work for U.S. Bank.”
Then eight years ago, Marshall said he had an opportunity to go back to school to complete his bachelor's degree.
“My wife and three daughters encouraged me to go back to school to become a teacher because they thought I'd be a good one,” he said.
So Marshall went to Eastern Oregon University, earned a bachelor's degree in business and a master's in education.
“Nyssa was my first job after graduating,” he said. “And I've been here ever since. It's a fabulous school district to work in.”
But even coming to the Nyssa School District bordered on chance.
“When they made me a job offer, I was one of three people that Blue Mountain Community College was going to interview for a computer teacher position, on Tuesday, which was three days after I had my interview at Nyssa,” he said.
After hearing the job offer, Marshall and his wife toured the community and on the way home made a list of pros and cons about the position and the location.
“The pros outweighed the cons probably 4-1, so I had told Mr. Grotting that I would get back to him by Sunday, and I called Blue Mountain Community College and withdrew my application.”
Marshall is now in his fifth year at Nyssa High School, teaching accounting, introduction to business and a series of computer classes.
“I couldn't be happier with my decision,” Marshall said. “I've been able to coach three different sports, and working with the kids, in the classroom or on the sports side, I just get more and more impressed with the students here. It's a great environment and best of all, I get to spend quality time with the students.”
In addition to coaching and teaching a full class load, Marshall spearheads business enterprises to raise funds for the Nyssa Future Business Leaders of America, including the “Nyssa Bulldog2O” bottled water.
“We had noticed that Pine Eagle, Imbler, Grant-Union and Baker all had their own water labels (on bottles of water),” he said. “Almost every one of those used a company out of North Powder, but we had an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. Not being able to sell someone else's water, we visited with the people from Coke who were thrilled with our proposal.”
Through a school-wide contest, students in art and computer classes created a logo and slogan to go on the Coca-Cola company's Dasani water.
“Then I used my intro to business class and marketing class to help market and sell the water, and I used my accounting class to keep track of the finances,” Marshall said. “That means 100 to 125 students are involved in this project each year.”
The business classes will debut a new product - Bulldog Slushies - at sporting events this spring.
“It's been a great real-life project for the students,” he said. “Anytime I can introduce those type of projects, I think it benefits the students way more than book work.”
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "