Mr. Ellison is the Electricity teacher here at ACC. He loves his job more than anything and is proud of the hard work he put in to get here.
The ACC Chronicle is excited to feature his experiences as an electrician in Alabama and what he most enjoys about teaching in our community today.
Mr. Ellison moved to the area two years ago from Fairhope, Alabama on the southern coast of the US. Before COVID, he ran the Electrical Technology program at an HBCU, and then spent June of 2021 and 2022 working long shifts at a pipe mill in the Alabama heat.
He recounts his time there well, saying “It was a great job that I really enjoyed; were it 6-12’s, I might still be there.” However, he wanted to escape the environment in Alabama and move somewhere more refreshing, like Arlington. What specifically drew him here were the professional sports team, mountains, and four real seasons.
Helping his students figure out what they want to do is by far Mr. Ellison’s favorite part of teaching. “If someone takes Electricity and doesn’t like it, that’s awesome, because I just saved them some time by keeping them from working a job they don’t like. If they love it, they have a launchpad for their career,” he says.
Ellison also believes in teaching his students soft skills that can be useful to them for the rest of their lives. “There is nothing more satisfying than watching these young men and women grow into young adults…My job is to help people look forward to coming to school and learn a useful skill while here; what could be better than that!”
While he claims not to have a favorite class between Level 1 Electricity and Level 2, he’s very excited with how much his program has grown over the past two years he’s spent at the Career Center. This year, he has three Level 1 classes that are all at capacity, as well as one Level 2 class. He hopes to expand the Level 2 classes in the future and is optimistic that he’ll achieve this, considering the amount of students in his Level 1 classes right now. Although he has no favorites, he has fun competing in SkillsUSA and doing projects around the school with the Level 2 class.
“My professional background is, surprise… an electrician,” Mr. Ellison jokingly remarks. Since the beginning of his journey, he’s found himself working in fields that allow him to gain hands-on experience. Straight out of highschool, he worked as a helper, wiring houses before he entered a four-year apprenticeship program. At 23, he became a journeyman electrician, and at 27, he earned a master electrician license.
He describes his apprenticeship as the “single most important professional event” of his life. He talks about all the valuable skills he acquired by powering through the heat in Alabama: “Everyone says you should build character. Nobody tells you that’s done through great adversity. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
Soon after this, Mr. Ellison was granted the opportunity to teach: “I jumped at it and never looked back.” He also mentions that he took college classes in between construction jobs and while in his apprenticeship, but he advises students to go to college right out of high school: “It took me 10 years and 4 colleges to earn a Regents BA. Once in the classroom, I continued my studies and earned an MS in Technical Education from Marshall University.”
“My mom was a teacher and my dad an electrician. All I did was split the difference, I suppose. I genuinely love what I do and I am so glad I moved 1000 miles from South Alabama to be here; because I have the best job in the world!”
