Dave Waldner is a man of many talents. When he’s not teaching he’s a photographer, and he seamlessly integrates the two passions for the benefit of his students.

David, at a Halloween event at school.

He’s been teaching at the Corman Park campus for four years. His teaching style is something that resonates with staff and students alike. He incorporates fun into his lesson plans to engage the class. Engagement is an important facet to Ranch educational principles.

“Every youth that comes here is at a very different place in their educational process. Most absolutely despise school,” Dave explained. “So when they come to our school, we try to make things a little bit more fun, a little bit more hands on, a little bit more engaging.”

Here, his dual professions comes in handy – he’s discovered that sometimes, students will respond to being given a video camera or a still camera. It allows them to open up in ways they may have previously been unable to.

“Obviously, it’s individual. Some kids love it. They’ll spend their whole day, if we let them, behind the camera. It opens up that door where they can just be themselves,” Dave explained.

A few years ago, a young man who was coming to Corman Park as a day student proved this in spades.

“When he had the camera, he was focused, he was hilarious – it just made him almost like a rockstar. And he wasn’t used to that. He was used to being the kid who caused trouble, the kid who hurt people,” Dave recalled.

Dave is also the founder of Eagle’s News Network, an extracurricular activity for Corman Park students that integrates video with a news-cast.

“Eagle’s News Network has kind of changed into a way to show people what is going on here, what we’re all about – and to show the fun stuff. Because the fun stuff doesn’t always get talked about with our kids,” he explained.

Dave knows that each student in the Ranch’s educational program has unique needs, and not all of them will be a good fit behind a lens. But he’s confident in the Ranch’s educational staff and their ability to find a way to create positive change in the lives of clients.

“I think developing the positive coping skills, positive social skills is what we are all trying to do to prepare these kids to go into a main stream class." He explained, "No one will get along with everyone. Teachers will say no. And students need to be able to function in that kind of environment. We work really hard to build that foundation."