Luke Glaser, an assistant principal at Hazard High School and a city council member in the city of Hazard, Kentucky, proudly lives and serves in the same community where he got his start as a teacher with the 2013 Teach For America Appalachia corps. His story is one of positive community impact and personal belonging—the same values shared among the neighborly Hazard community and our TFA network.

• Grade and Subject Taught: High school math
• Current Sector: Government and education
• Major/Alma Mater: English and Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky; MsEd, Johns Hopkins University

What TFA resources, alumni programs, staff support, or networking opportunities led to your next move(s)? 

Teach For America has been a part of my entire professional journey. 

Nationally, TFA is a wellspring of inspiration to me. From following new corps members on social media to attending anniversary summits with 20,000 of my fellow peers, TFA serves as a constant reminder for why we do this work. 

Regionally, TFA Appalachia has been a constant friend and source of mentorship. Since being an alum, members of my region have celebrated my victories and guided me through difficult times. I am currently in the Central Appalachian Leadership Lab, a fantastic collective of Appalachian leaders whose aim is to connect leaders in education to leaders in other sectors of community development. I can confidently say if it were not for TFA Appalachia, I would not be where I am today, doing this groundwork in the place I have decided to call my home.

“Teaching taught me that I am capable of doing more in 24 hours than I ever dreamed possible.”

Luke Glaser

City Council Member & Assistant Principal

Appalachia Corps Member 2013

What skills did you develop as a teacher in the corps that surprised you or that you still use today?

Someone once told me that teaching was like having 50 browser tabs open at once, trying to figure out which one is making the most noise. 

Teaching taught me that I am capable of doing more in 24 hours than I ever dreamed possible. Friends who did the corps with me and moved on to other professions tell me that teaching is still the hardest thing they ever did. TFA taught me how to manage my time, and how to prioritize the laundry list of action items that never seems to grow shorter. 

As an instructional coach for new teachers and a mentor for others in my city work, one of my favorite concepts to teach is one I learned from TFA: locus of control. It means asking yourself What, at this moment, can you control in your environment? I work with people to help them focus and gain a sense of control and calm.

Even now, nine years later, I am still utilizing skills I learned to make and prioritize a daily to-do list, empowered to adjust for interruptions and use that to-do list as something to light a fire in me every day. 

How did being a teacher connect you to the community? 

My passion is community development. When I graduated college, that is what I wanted to do. Moving to a small town to become a teacher, in an area that is often unfairly disparaged as “backwards,” taught me that teaching is community development. 

A community will not survive without its school, and when the community thrives the school thrives. Further, in a small town, the school is the epicenter of community activity. Teaching introduced me to community stakeholders, and it allowed me to see the problems and strengths of the community in the teachers and students. 

Thanks to my work as a teacher, I got involved in community organizations, which led to my running and winning a seat on the city council. One of my biggest priorities as a politician is to connect young people to their local government. Recently, I worked with city and school leaders to create the City of Hazard Civic Fellowship, the most comprehensive city internship in the state of Kentucky. My work in the school and my work in the city are inseparable; my mission and my why are the success and flourishing of both.

Many people want to impact change, but don’t know where to start. How can today’s generation make a difference?

During COVID-19, I realized that a lot of my friends and folks that I follow on social media were extremely pessimistic about the condition of the world. Even after the pandemic, we are still inundated with bad news and it is easy to feel hopeless. That oppressing condition does not affect me as severely, though, because during COVID-19, I was thinking of creative ways to keep our community’s small businesses open, working to spread the word on how people could stay active, and finding creative ways for the government to stay in touch with its citizens. 

The lesson here is when things seem impossible to change, start local. Work for change in your community, in your neighborhood, even on your street! Not only will this help you to believe in your ability to make things better, it will help you realize that the people who are going to have the greatest impact on your life are not the far-off presidents and CEOs of the world; rather, they are your local elected officials, the people who step up to run a community sports league, the people who work tirelessly to keep your neighborhood pool open. The people who live and love your hometown just like you, these are the people who make a difference.

The places we call home, and our very own lives, are made more perfect by the people who are already known to us. Life is best lived in the company of good friends in pursuit of large causes. I think being content means realizing those large causes are right outside our doors.