It was the beginning of my junior year. This is the time when you are supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. Of course for me, being such a procrastinator, I was still undecided and completely clueless on where my life was going. It was in this year that I started taking marketing classes, which were all taught by Mr. Steve Melzer. He is the teacher of all the marketing classes at Arrowhead and is also in charge of DECA (the marketing association at our school) – this means he runs the school store and other events, such as our annual DECA Nights, Kalahari leadership labs, and DECA competitions.

“I’m Mr. Melzer and I’ll be your instructor for the day.” Those are the same eleven words I would hear every day for the next three semesters of my high school career. But the way I saw it, he was more than an instructor. He was my mentor.
With such a vigorous schedule and so many extra responsibilities, Mr. Melzer always made the time to help each and every student. He believed in success, but he taught us that it never comes without hard work and effort. Mr. Melzer was honest about everything. If something wasn’t 100%, he would make that clear to the student. But then he would work and work with the student to help them perfect it.

Mr. Melzer inspired me over those three semesters. He showed me how much fun business and marketing really can be. He made it an easy decision for me when it came time to pick a major for college. For all of his time, effort, and excitement in teaching, I want to nominate Mr. Steve Melzer as “Educator of the Year.”