Mr. Schaeffer is one of Centreville’s newest English teachers. This is his first year teaching at Centreville High School, team taught along with other teacher, Mrs. Perrone. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina with one sister and three step brothers. He is very familiar with the DMV area. He has lived in the DMV since he was five years old and graduated at Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland. He attended the University of Maryland (UMD) for college and majored in economics and minored in environmental policy while he was there. He is currently working for his masters degree at Liberty University.

After college at UMD, he worked on Capitol Hill for a congressman. He wanted to continue working on economic policy, but started working in McLean. He sold computer software to the government while he was there. Before Centreville, he worked with alternative students who had patterns of behavior issues to help those kids transition back into a base school. 

He moved to Korea and taught English for a year and a half. America in comparison to Korea is completely different in many positive ways rather than negative. Mr. Schaeffer finds the schooling in Korea more unhealthy than here in America. Based on his experiences, Korea is more strict. All the kids there are socially pressured to be similar and to participate in the same activities as other kids. High school students also go to school for 12 hours a day. In his opinion, high school students don’t have time to do extracurricular activities such as playing sports, joining clubs, and get homework done due to being at school all day. This made him realize how much he appreciates America and the advantages our country has over others.

“In the first two months working at Centreville, I fell in love with the students, administration, and community; they have all made me feel welcomed and appreciated,” said Mr. Schaeffer. His favorite part of Centreville is helping students become more confident in their reading and writing skills.“Teaching elementary and middle school students inspired me to become a high school teacher because I am passionate about helping kids transition into college life.” He finds working with kids and creating unforgettable bounds with students to be an enjoyable experience. Mr. Schaeffer wants students to take the skills they learn from his class and apply it to their daily lives to help set them up for future success. 

Not only does Mr. Schaeffer love to teach, but also loves to coach and travel the world. He has been to Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Outside of school, he also shared and expresses his passion coaching basketball to his students. He has been a coach for soccer in the past, but found his love for basketball and has been coaching the sport for 5 years. Currently, Mr. Schaeffer is the boys assistant varsity basketball coach at Oakton High School in Vienna, VA. He hopes to become head coach of the boys Centreville basketball team in the near future.

Mr. Schaeffer is a great addition to the Centreville English Department. His passion for helping students in and outside of school is inspiring. He believes English is important because becoming a great writer and reader will help you to apply for jobs or get accepted into college. Also, Mr. Schaeffer would like for kids to use the resources available to them to gain experience that can become useful later in life.