By EMERSON SUTOW

Carl Keiser is a well-known substitute teacher in the Redlands School District and has a great reputation with both students and teachers. He has subbed in the district for a year and has been a long-term sub for a few teachers at Citrus Valley, like McGrath, Goodland, and Carpenter.

He mentioned how he wishes to become a teacher at Citrus Valley in either special education or World history. Since he already is familiar with Citrus Valley’s campus and staff, he would be able to easily assimilate to daily life at Citrus and would make a great addition to the school.

Although Keiser’s dream of being a teacher did not start early, it wasn’t his only plan. He said growing up he dreamed of being the President of the United States. But he encountered a couple of teachers, Paul Beaumont and Ken McGrath, who greatly influenced him, making him pursue teaching.

Keiser was a part of the first graduating class at Citrus Valley back in 2012. He actually had some of the teachers that can still be found on campus today, like Robert Rooney, Shannon Rooney, Beaumont, McGrath, and Saldana, who have gone from being teachers to colleagues.

He then stayed local for college and graduated from UCR with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He says he planned on having other projects in addition to teaching and figured it would be good to have a business degree. One of his extra projects he plans to do is to join his family in their “real estate ventures” someday.

He says he had a very positive experience at Citrus Valley and enjoys the fact that he can come back to help lead and influence students during their high school years and help prepare them for college. He also loves how he can get involved in programs like speech and debate, comedy sports and student government.

“I firmly believe that everyone has to be their own person,” Keiser says. “But, I also believe that there are things that I have picked up along the way from influential people that have influenced who and how I am.”

A few of these influential people are his father, Carl John Keiser, his grandfather, Carl R Keiser, Dr. Gene Scott,  Paul Charles Beaumont, and Ken McGrath.

After almost finishing up his first year as a substitute teacher, Keiser says he tries to not only cover the subject matter when subbing but also prepare his students for what comes after high school.

Keiser has addressed how his students now have the most impact on him since he is preparing to have a classroom of his own. So not only is he teaching his students but they are teaching him and influencing the way he will teach his students in the future.

Overall, Mr. Keiser is a great teacher and is always up for a story from his high school days that all start with his signature line, “when I was in high school”; he is very funny and great to get to know because when with Mr. Keiser there are no dull moments.