A former tech PR agency founder has left a 30-year career to become a first-year high school teacher at DSST Public Schools, saying the move has given him an unexpected lesson in self-confidence from his Gen Z students, and in patience from the profession itself.
The writer, who is 55, joined DSST after a mid-July conversation with a friend. Three days later, following an intense interview process, he received an offer to teach Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship at DSST: College View High School in Denver.
He had already earned a Career and Technical Education (CTE) certification from the state of Colorado, though he had expected to wait another year or two before using it.
DSST Public Schools career change: from agency founder to classroom beginner
The decision came fast, as it often does in tech. Within days of his interview, he was in discussions with his business partner about handing over their agency, while simultaneously sitting in teacher training sessions wondering, by his own account, whether he had ‘completely lost’ his mind.
DSST, founded as the Denver School of Science and Technology, operates a STEM-focused curriculum with a stated mission to eliminate educational inequity and prepare every student for college and the 21st century. According to the Common Sense Institute, the network serves nearly 7,400 students across eight middle schools and eight high schools.
The U.S. Department of Education has recorded that DSST maintained a 100% college acceptance rate for students network-wide since its founding, a figure that reflects the seriousness of the mission he says he witnessed during training.
This year, more than 900 seniors took part in a Senior Signing Day celebration. Every graduating student leaves with a plan: a trade qualification, community college, military service, or a four-year university.
Gen Z self-trust: what a 55-year-old is learning in the classroom
The writer says what has surprised him most is not the curriculum but the students. Spending time with Gen Z, he writes, has energised him.
He points to the Deloitte Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey, which found that more than half of Gen Zs say the cost of living and housing affordability are actively reshaping their career choices, yet 53% still expect their own financial situation to improve within the next year.
‘They may not trust the systems around them, but they trust themselves,’ he writes. That quiet confidence, he says, is something he is only beginning to appreciate.
The contrast with his previous career is sharp. In tech PR, he writes, clients could walk with 30 days’ notice and CMOs in the sector average just 1.8 years in the role. Teaching hired him just as quickly but then told him the opposite: it might take three years to become exceptional at the job, and that is expected.
Every veteran teacher he has spoken to has passed on the same warning: do not quit in year one.
He describes sitting in a summer training session as the oldest person in the room and the least experienced, fumbling through a ten-minute practice lesson, sweating through it, and watching more seasoned colleagues coach each other through difficult moments without ego. His three decades of campaigns, clients and agency-building counted for nothing in that room.
He says he hopes to bring genuine business experience, a professional network willing to speak to teenagers about working life, and respect for the tested curriculum DSST’s teachers have already built.
A room full of students has since walked into his classroom. Their next lesson is already scheduled.
