Brian Van Dyck makes his way back to Santa Clara Unified School District, teaching Computer Science and Digital Media at SCHS.

Van Dyck spent the last five years working at Google and in the Cal State Teach Program before deciding he wanted to return to the district and into Santa Clara High School to teach students what he learned about computer science.

“This is my first year teaching at Santa Clara High School, and I love it here,” Van Dyck said. “This job opening up at the high school is one of the reasons that I came back to Santa Clara Unified.”

Van Dyck’s first teaching experience was coaching youth basketball teams as a teenager.

“My grandfather was a Division 1 basketball coach, and my mom coached kids’ teams,” Van Dyck said. “It rubbed off on me.”

According to Van Dyck, a very serious medical condition took him away from a career he started building, leading him to seek a fall-back plan. Six months before opening his own restaurant, a teacher friend encouraged him to become a teacher.

“He saw the way I worked with kids and saw someone who would be great in a classroom setting,” Van Dyck said. “He said, ‘Brian, you were born to be a teacher,’ and that’s what changed my mind. It was one of those life changing conversations.”

As he was recovering from surgeries to treat his ulcerative colitis, Van Dyck went back to school and earned his graduate degree and teaching credential.

“Being a teacher was never a thought or a consideration of mine,” Van Dyck said. “But having the thought that I needed to be a teacher implemented in my head, I decided to take up that advice.”

Van Dyck taught 18 years for SCUSD, splitting his time between Buchser Middle School and Peterson Middle School, during which, he said, he learned a great deal about the staff at SCHS.

“I got to know the staff and I got to know the culture. That’s one of the reasons I came back here,” Van Dyck said.

His experience working for the California State University system for the last five years gave Van Dyck the opportunity to work at a higher level and work with other professors, an experience he believes has helped improve his teaching at SCHS.

“Having this opportunity really advanced my career and where I’m at,” Van Dyck said.

Van Dyck was one of the first 100 Google certified teachers, dating all the way back to 2008. When Van Dyck taught for SCUSD, he worked part time at Google, running the Computing and Programming Experience (CAPE) program. Van Dyck along with CAPE introduced the concepts of computer science to incoming high school freshmen.

Van Dyck then decided he wanted to teach students everything he had learned, so he came back to SCUSD.

“Everything that I’ve learned and taught with Google, I’m bringing here with me,” Van Dyck said.