Finding Greatness: Daniel Meyers

Author: Alexandria Brooks
Posted: Monday, October 4, 2021 12:00 AM
Categories: Pressroom | School of Education and Behavioral Sciences | Students | Finding Greatness

Macon, GA

After a career in management, Dan Meyers decided he wanted to become a teacher. By pursuing the fully online Master of Arts in Teaching from MGA, he was able to launch his second career in education. 

Full Name: Daniel “Dan” Meyers.

Age: 38.

Hometown: Titusville, Fla.

Current City of Residence: St. Simons Island, Ga.

Family: Wife of 13 years, Jennifer Meyers; sons, J. Walker Meyers (9) and Kaden Daniel Meyers (6).

Employment: 10th grade world history teacher at Glynn Academy; head flag football and assistant baseball coach. 

Activities: “I help coach my son’s soccer and baseball teams as a community coach. I’m the founder of Operation Bed Spread, a nonprofit that donates beds to kids in our community who need them. So far, we’ve donated 1,200+ beds in our less than ten years in existence. I’m also a 707 leader for a bunch of cool eighth graders via a community small group through the parachurch ministry, The Gathering Place.”

Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a minor in accounting at Flagler College, Class of 2006.

MGA Graduate Degree Objective: Master of Arts in Teaching.

Career Goals: “My first career was in management at Sea Island Company. Education is a second career for me. I got into education to be a change agent in my community. I want to invest in students’ lives and be a positive role model for them. I want to be the type of teacher that serves as a mentor for my students throughout their educational journeys and remains available to them long after they graduate. MGA has equipped me to be a better classroom teacher, which allows me to create better relationships with my students.”

He chose Middle Georgia State because … “I made a connection I made with the staff. When I was hired as a teacher, I had to either do the GaTAPP or an MAT program. I reached out to many universities to get more information about their programs. Dr. Himangshu and I emailed for a couple of months before the application deadline. I quickly realized that at MGA, I’d be more than just another student; I’d be someone the staff would invest in.”

His greatest experience so far as a Middle Georgia State graduate student has been … “Learning from great professors. So many of the lessons that I’ve had from Dr. Haislip or Dr. Cole in particular have been implanted in my classroom during the same week. All the professors provide great feedback that is applicable to the ‘real world’. They challenge us to better ourselves week in and week out.”

To him, “greatness” means … “Pursuing perfection, even when you realize perfection is unattainable. Setting out every day to be great, but realizing we will come up short more often than not. Greatness is not an accomplishment, but getting ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and attempting to be great the next day after we’ve failed. True greatness is the ability to not quit, especially when we want to.”