UNK’s Transitional Certification Program paves the way for Vincent Smail’s return to Lincoln High School

What do you want to do when you grow up? 
 
We’ve all been asked this question at one point in our lives. 
 
University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Transitional Certification Program student Vincent Smail believes we should be asking a deeper question, “How will you impact your community?” 
 
If you would have asked Smail this 14 years ago, as a senior at Lincoln High, he would have been unsure of both of his answers. Now, Smail is back at Lincoln High but this time living his answers as a high school business teacher. 
 
“I always tell people that in this profession, not only do you have a career, but you're also fulfilling a purpose,” Smail said. 
 
Unfortunately, Smail’s journey to his purpose didn’t come easily, though it has helped him become a more impactful teacher. 
 
Directly out of high school, Smail attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he was on the Maverick’s football team. His sophomore year, the university cut the football program and he transferred to Southeast Community College in Lincoln. 
 

“I was actually put on academic probation,” he said. “Regardless of the program ending I may not have been able to return to UNO because of how my grades were.” 
 
Doane University saw his potential despite his academic performance and recruited him through athletic and academic scholarships to play football.  
 
“It was a great school, great experience, but it was still very expensive, and I just didn't know what I wanted to do,” said Smail who had changed his major multiple times throughout his educational career. 
 
Deciding to take a break from school, he returned home and began working when his now wife became pregnant with their first child. In hopes to provide for his growing family, he returned to SCC where he graduated with his associate’s degree.  
 
While picking up his diploma at Southeast, he saw a flyer for Bellevue University hanging in the hallway, and he knew it was his “ticket” to getting his bachelor’s degree. He completed his degree in business and began working for a local law firm as a business manager. 
 
However, he continuously felt a pull towards teaching. With the birth of his second daughter, he worried making such a bold career change would negatively impact his family. 
 
“At this time, I had no idea that the transitional program existed,” Smail said about UNK’s online TCP. “I'm thinking, ‘I have to get enrolled in school, I have to do the student teaching; that's going to be another six months no pay.’ It was very stressful and scary.” 
 

To see if his passion for teaching was something he truly wanted to pursue, Smail began substitute teaching. 

While substitute teaching at Lincoln High, he ran into his former English teacher, now Lincoln High associate principal, Mark Larson, who asked Smail what brought him back more than a decade after his graduation. 
 
“I was like, ‘I'm subbing. I'm thinking about being a teacher,’” Smail said. 
 
That summer, Larson called Smail and offered him a job as a business teacher. Unfortunately, Smail was forced to turn down the opportunity due to not having his teaching certificate. But Larson wouldn’t let him get away that easily. 
 
“He's like, ‘Don't worry about it. If you apply to UNK and get accepted, I can legally hire you. You don't have to do the student teaching. I can pay you while you're taking classes,’” Smail said. 
  
UNK’s TCP is an alternative pathway to an Initial Teaching Certificate, recognized by the Nebraska Department of Education. The fully online program allows students to bypass traditional student teaching, by gaining experiential learning within their own classroom while being paid as a full-time teacher.  
 
After completing the requirements of UNK’s TCP, students can continue towards a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction by completing an additional 12 credit hours. 
 

Smail’s journey through five different higher educational institutions has not only landed him his dream career, but also nearly three degrees.  
 
“I am grateful for the journey because it's something that I use in my classroom,” Smail said. “I tell students all the time, ‘You're on your own timeline, what your friends are doing is going to be completely different than what you're doing - and that's okay. You're going to have people that accomplish things before you, and you should congratulate them because your turn will come.’” 
 
His time came, and his wife and two daughters will be alongside him Friday at UNK’s commencement ceremony where Smail will be awarded his master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. 
 
“They definitely have motivated me for most of my successes in my adult life,” Smail said about his family. “There were times where I never even thought I would get my undergrad. The fact that I'm here, it's very surreal.”