As soon as Mr. McDonald saw the light of understanding come into his charge’s eyes, he knew he wanted to be a teacher. After growing up and attending schools in West Contra Cost Unified (Grant, Portola, and El, Cerrito), Mr. McDonald set off to college to become a computer engineer. One year later, that desire fell to the wayside in an evening of frustration while looking for a stray semi-colon in over 1400 lines of code. After considering his options while filling out his general education requirements, he took a  job as a tutor at a local Richmond church, and that was when he saw the light and dedicated himself to the teaching profession. A stint as a substitute teacher followed after he got his bachelors degree in English, and then he joined the intern program at WCCUSD, where he was hired at Kennedy High. He struggled early on, as most teachers do, but he grew fond of the place:the colleagues, and students just had a positive vibe that kept getting better and better. Now, in his eleventh year here, he can’t think of working anywhere else. And that light? He still loves seeing it come on in his students’ eyes.