Educator was a welder before entering the classroom. Now he’s Wake’s Teacher of the Year
A Millbrook High School teacher who overcame dyslexia and now works at his alma mater has been named Wake County’s top educator.
Ryan Berglund, a Sustainable Agriculture Academy teacher at Millbrook High in Raleigh, was named the 2024 Wake County Teacher of the Year at a ceremony Monday night. Like a growing number of educators, teaching is a second career for Berglund.
Berglund was a professional welder and equipment fabricator before becoming a teacher at Millbrook in 2019. That prior experience has benefited his students.
Wake says Berglund is the only agriculture teacher in North Carolina that is an AWS Certified Welding Inspector. Under his mentorship, 64 students have become certified welders ready to enter the workforce upon graduation.
During his acceptance speech, Berglund said he tells his students he’ll work harder than they will. But he also tells them they’ll be able to do something successful when they work harder than him.
“I always will put as much possible as I can into it, but I need them to put in more in than I am, and when they’re doing that you’ll see the true success,” Berglund said. “We’re able to see that every single day In the programs that we have and what our students are currently doing.”
Dyslexia helps him relate to students
Berglund said being diagnosed with dyslexia and short-term memory loss in the third grade helped shape how he now interacts with his students. Berglund took special education classes to learn how to read and write.
“In resource classes, I was able to see how students with disabilities have been given a different lens to look through that is not right or wrong, just different,” Bergulund said in his Teacher of the Year portfolio. “This is a mindset I try to instill in all of my students.”
Berglund graduated from Millbrook High. He has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education from the University of Mount Olive.
Berglund helped implement Millbrook’s Supervised Agriculture Experience program that allows over 350 students annually to gain work-based learning experiences. Students in the program have started businesses, worked with local agriculture enterprises and created their own service programs.
”I’m super, super excited to able to say that this year’s Wake County Teacher of the Year is also supporting our number one industry: which is agriculture,” Berglund said.
Last year’s Wake Teacher of the Year also had not planned on being a teacher. Terry Hennings was a U.S. Air Force medic with 25 years of military experience before he became a Civic Literacy and African American Studies teacher at Garner High School.
WCPSS Teacher of the Year finalists
Berglund was chosen among the Teacher of the Year winners for each individual school. The list was whittled to 10 finalists:
▪ Juan Cruz, a fifth-grade teacher at Buckhorn Creek Elementary in Holly Springs
▪ Susan Ennis, a career and technical education/science teacher at Leesville Road High in Raleigh
▪ April Guenzler, an Intervention teacher at Lockhart Elementary in Knightdale
▪ Monica Hall, a kindergarten teacher at Timber Drive Elementary in Garner
▪ Kelly Hurry, a second-grade teacher at Laurel Park Elementary in Apex
▪ Whitney Masterson, an eighth-grade science teacher at Mills Park Middle in Cary
▪ Madison Parker, a special education teacher at Alston Ridge Elementary in Cary
▪ Karen Rahe, a sixth-grade math teacher at Dillard Drive Middle in Raleigh
▪ Ashely N. Smith, a seventh-grade English language arts teacher at Zebulon Middle
Berglund’s prize package includes a $1,000 check. He’ll also get use of a 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe, compliments of Capital Chevrolet, for the next year.
He’ll go on to compete in North Carolina’s Teacher of the Year program.
