Prof. Jonathan Skaar, who served as an assistant professor of kinesiology at Ͽϲͼ, is moving with his family to Boise, Idaho, where he has accepted a position teaching at Meridian Medical Arts Charter High School.
The school prepares students who are looking to enter careers in allied health professions. Skaar will be teaching college-level material as a career technical education instructor.
The move is as much a surprise to Skaar as anyone else.
“Honestly, it wasn’t anything that my wife and I expected,” Skaar says. “We had every intention of being here in the fall. This year we celebrated the birth of our son, and he’s a game changer. We did a lot of praying about how we were going to move forward as parents. I had prayed, ‘God, show us how you want to use our family to bring you the most glory.’ And it was shortly after that that the job in Idaho popped up.”
Skaar began teaching at TMU in the fall of 2016, having previously served as a high school head athletic trainer and baseball coach.
Jonathan, with his wife Katrina (TMU ’14) and son Kaleb, drove to their new home in July after a whirlwind of logistics and goodbyes. Out of all the things he’ll miss at TMU, he says he’ll miss the people most.
“Leaving my coworkers and my students is the hardest thing,” Skaar said. “There are people I was looking forward to seeing graduate. And working with Dave Larsen and Dawn Okonowski in the kinesiology department is just such a fun dynamic. They’re some of the best people I’ve ever met. Master’s has been a wonderful place for us, and I am incredibly thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had here.”
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