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By Lexie Kauffman ’22
Dave Dunsavage became the new CVHS Assistant Principal on Wednesday, January 20 when the new semester began. Before coming to CV, Dunsavage had worked at Milton Hershey School as a high school American History teacher and in their Senior Division Home Life as a Transitional Living Coordinator. More recently, he was employed as a Modern World History teacher at Donegal High School.
The Elizabethtown alumni has worked in education for the past fifteen years. When asked why he became a teacher, Dunsavage revealed the driving inspiration behind his career.
“I have a bit of a difficult background,” Dunsavage explained. “Growing up, my mom and dad both had drug and alcohol issues. I was raised by my grandparents and my aunt, and other than those three people, the people that cared about me the most in the world and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself and were forgiving to me when I didn’t always deserve it were my teachers.”
He has done everything in his power to positively impact as many students as possible, making everyone feel welcome and valued.
“For me, there were certainly times where I felt like I didn’t fit in or I did not belong, so I always wanted to make sure that a student that never had me in class felt they belonged just as much as a student in my class did,” Dunsavage described passionately.
After so many years in the classroom, Dunsavage has moved to an administrative position with one goal in mind: reaching more students.
“I’ll say it was a hard decision because I really love teaching, and I loved the school I was at and I loved the students,” Dunsavage said. “In addition to teaching, I did all kinds of different things, so whether it was helping out with the Gay-Straight Alliance, or doing Link Crew, or being a football coach, or I’d take my students on educational trips abroad into Europe to see World War II sites, or leading the pep rally, or doing a talent show, whatever, that whole thing was about investing as much time and energy as I could into the students.”
As assistant principal, it is his hope to influence as many students as possible.
“The whole idea of moving to an assistant principal position is, ‘Can I be a part of something where I can reach more students? Can I be in a situation where the students that are like I was, getting into trouble more often or whatever, where I can help have a greater impact on them and help them see the value they have and the possibilities that are ahead of them and what their life could be? Could I be a part of systemic programs where I can do it deliberately instead of doing it piecemeal here and there? How can I impact more people as part of a systemic change that makes sure every student feels valued and can see a path for themselves to be successful in life and beyond?” Dunsavage commented.
When Dunsavage is not investing in his students, he is enjoying time with his family, including his wife of 21 years, his two daughters, and their rescued cat, Buddy. Dunsavage has a love for books, especially graphic novels. When asked about his favorite book, he struggled to choose, eventually deciding on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as his favorite book and Hey Kiddo as his favorite graphic novel.
Dunsavage joins Rachel Metzinger and Dr. Michael Smith as the CVHS administration team.