Another new face at CIHS! Meet Jody Clark, a social science teacher. It is his first year here with us at Channel Islands High School so let’s learn a little bit about him! 

Mr. Clark was like most kids when he was younger; he didn’t like school. He didn’t try all that much and would often ditch class. His father had passed when he was in the tenth grade so he really started to fall behind. 

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says Mr. Clark. 

However, Mr. Clark saw the road that his brothers were headed through and soon realized that he didn’t want to go down that path either. With some hard work and dedication, he managed to graduate high school. In fact, he graduated a semester early by quickly passing so many classes. 

After graduating, Mr. Clark joined the military. To him, he only had three options after graduating: either join the military, go to college, or go to trade school. He wanted to travel but also have a roof over his head so he joined the Navy. 

Mr. Clark was a sonar technician for four years before deciding that he really didn’t want to do that anymore. Afterwards, he moved to Arizona and started going to college. He went with his childhood dream and tried to become a firefighter, but there were only five spots for 25,000 applicants so instead, he decided to join the Marine Corps. During that time, he got to travel to places like Spain, Italy, the Middle East, and much more. Soon, Mr. Clark went through drill instructor school and became a drill instructor. However, while on that deployment, he realized he wanted to retire.  

“I was ready to retire, I was ready to be home, ready to stop being away from home. I knew I wanted to do something that was going to require a degree,” Mr. Clark told The Isle File. 

He thought of becoming either a firefighter like planned, or a teacher. Either way, he knew he needed his degree. So he went and got his associates at Oxnard College and his bachelors at CSUCI. Mr. Clark then earned his teaching credentials at Cal Lutheran. Afterwards, he taught at Hueneme High School and even became a baseball coach. However, the school wanted him to become a health teacher and he didn’t want that so he transferred to CIHS where he teaches history. 

Mr. Clark says that he “like[s] seeing kids not being confident in doing something and then seeing that lightbulb when they finally get it.” 

Mr. Clark has gone through quite the journey and we thank him both for his service in the military and as a teacher.