You can ask recent Fresno State alumnus Jacob Simmons about his “15-Year Plan.”

Simmons, a first-generation college student who returned to school to earn his bachelor’s degree in English Education from Fresno State in 2016, just started his first year as a full-time English teacher at Kingsburg High School this fall.

A self-described “terrible student” when he first started taking college classes, Simmons says he spent six years after high school “turning into something that I always detested, as a student. I was completely disengaged. I didn’t like being the student who hadn’t read the book. I didn’t like being the student who’d only show up once every three class periods. I didn’t really like what was happening.”

Even though he found English and other classes in the arts and humanities interesting, Simmons says the timing wasn’t yet right for him to be successful in college. He failed to find the motivation to show up. He got poor and incomplete grades. So he left to pursue a job, “to really sink my teeth into something and to learn what that feels like to commit to something,” he says.

So, you ask: What did you do for work?

“Industrial sales,” Simmons says. “Selling hardware and personal protective equipment for Fastenal in Salinas.”

But Simmons thought "someday it sure would be nice to go back to Fresno State and have a do-over.”

He did. Coming back to Fresno State in the fall of 2015, he was a long shot to earn a spot in the English teaching credential program. Two and a half years later, he finished it.

Simmons credits the classroom style of English professors Dr. Samina Najmi, Dr. Kathleen Godfrey, and Dr. Laurel Hendrix with helping him craft his thinking about what being a successful teacher might look like.

Visit the College of Arts and Humanities blog to read more.