Name: Patrick Lee
Your School: Camas Valley Charter School
Position: Superintendent and Principal
College Alma Mater: Southern Oregon University
One fun fact about you: I’ve worked in Camas Valley all 23 year of my educational career.

Because of GEAR UP, we have higher rates of students going to college, and we have a dynamic new business class focused on graphic design.

Describe your educational journey.
From a young age I wanted to be a meteorologist. Studying weather and weather patterns was a passion. I knew to be a meteorologist I would need to go to college, so I worked hard through middle and high school to get good grades so I could get accepted to college and get scholarships. It all worked perfectly until I started taking college level math classes needed to be a meteorologist and quickly realized advanced math was not my strength. I switched gears to my second love which was reading and writing, and from there I decided to become a secondary English teacher. After 15 years of teaching and swearing I would never go into administration, life happened and I got into administration.

Share one way that GEAR UP has made a difference in your school or community.
We have become more focused and more intentional in preparing students for life after high school.