Former AWC Governing Board President shares his journey of becoming a teacher

An uplifting story on how a man pursued his dreams of being a teacher

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - One man tells his inspiring journey from being a high school dropout to being the president of a governing board and now teaching at a local college.

Randy Hartless dropped out of high school at age 15, then attempted to take college courses three decades later.

Although, he still had an uphill battle trying to take on math classes.

“Despite many years of dabbling in college courses, one huge roadblock that I was completely unprepared for was college math classes. I dropped out of high school as a sophomore and went into a low-level job as a dishwasher, so I had no real math education. My Arizona Western College transcripts show that I dropped Algebra twice and earned an F once,” Heartless recounted.

Professor Reetika Dhawan helped Hartless and pushed him to pass his algebra courses, so Hartless received an associate degree in General Studies from Arizona Western College at age 52.

Hartless was able to sign his own degree as he was also the AWC District Governing Board President.

After pursuing a bachelor's degree in Public Administration and also a master's degree in English, Hartless wanted to achieve his dream job of becoming an AWC professor.

However, no positions were available and to make things worse, the COVID-19 pandemic began.

In the Summer of 2021, Hartless received a job offer to teach English at AWC.

“When I got that job offer, I was elated. I’m just so grateful to be able to do something I love, even though I didn’t start doing it until I was 61 years old,” he said. “I wanted to be someone that people both young and old look up to and think about as they make their way along their educational path.”