LANDIS — Building a brick wall is a lot like building a relationship. It takes patience, attention and care. South Rowan High School masonry teacher Darren Yow learned that lesson years ago and his role in the classroom earned him recognition as the Rowan-Salisbury School System’s Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year.

Yow said that when they announced he was the winner, he thought there must be some mistake. 

“Couldn’t be me,” he said. 

Yow began at Carson High School over a decade ago, but he has been at South Rowan for the past 6 and a half years. The masonry teacher first began laying brick in 1987, shortly after graduating from South Rowan. During his time there, he has come to have an impact on a broad swath of students. Yow said that for him, teaching is about forming relationships.

“I don’t do this to be recognized,” he said. “I do this because of the relationships with kids. A bunch of these kids need a father figure in their life. That’s who I try to be. I try to make a difference in their life. Every day, to me, any good teacher, any great teacher, has got to build a relationship.”

Yow said that his students trust him because he does not sugar coat things, finding that honesty is the best way to bridge gaps.

If they put forth the effort, they’re gonna get a good grade,” Yow said. 

At the end of the day, Yow is trying to set his students up for success down the road, whether that means getting certification to go into a trade craft or emotional support to become a more complete adult and person.

Yow has created an environment in his classroom where his students are not afraid to try new things. 

“He will let you fail, not in a miserable way, but it is a safe place to fail,” Senior Sam Olson said. 

Olson wants to enlist in the military after she graduates this year, but she is thankful for the personal development she attributes to Yow’s class. She has taken masonry all four years of high school.

“I like building with my hands,” she said. “It is probably one of my favorite things to do. Yow is a really good teacher … He is very calm and patient, but he is also like, ‘I taught you that, so how do you think you are supposed to do it?’”

When other parts of school or just life in general have been a lot to process, Olson said that the shop has given her an outlet to decompress and refocus. 

“It’s been very therapeutic,” she said. 

For Yow, it’s all about making and being a difference.

“I’m the teacher who wants to make a difference in their life,” Yow said. “They come back in four or five years from graduation, say, ‘Yeah, you remember when I did that?’ I know I did my job because I made a difference in their life.”

Senior Evan Linebarger confirmed that Yow’s teaching style does resonate with students. 

“Mr. Yow is a really nice guy that I consider the best teacher here,” Linebarger said. “He has always been nice to me. He’s nice to everybody and he talks to everybody. If you are down or sad or something, he’ll cheer you up and he makes everything really easy to understand.”

Yow shared a story of one troubled student. 

“I’m not gonna call his name,” Yow said. “He hated my guts. OK? He hated this class. He did not want to be in this class … he skipped out about every day. I’d take roll, and then I couldn’t find him, but I never wrote him up. Probably should have, but the next year he came back in, he goes, ‘Can I talk to you?’ I go, ‘yes, sir.’ He told me his whole life history and what he was going through. He was thankful that I truly cared about him.”

That student course corrected and turned his academic trajectory around.

“That’s what it is all about,” Yow said.

During Yow’s time at South Rowan, the popularity of this class has increased. 

“When I came here six and a half years ago, I was lucky to have 12 to 15 in the class,” he said. 

Now, every class is full and students are on a waiting list. 

“These kids hear how much I care about them,” he said. 

Senior Cameron Barth recognized Yow’s passion right out of the gate.

“My first year here, I did not know anything about masonry so it was something I thought I would try,” Barth said. “I came down here and talked to (Yow) a little bit. The first time I talked to him it was an instant connection. Good teacher. Good person really and it has only gone up from there.”

For Barth, Yow has been instrumental in and out of the classroom.

“He has helped me a lot with figuring out my next move,” Barth said. “I am going to trade school for construction … He has hooked me up with a job over the summer with masonry and landscaping. He has helped me get all my certifications and get everything correct.”

He said he is going to miss the experiences from the class but Yow the most.

“He’s a good teacher and a friend,” Barth said.

Yow, who graduated from South in 1985, remembers a teacher who had a profound impact on him and it has led him to try and be that presence for his students. 

“I had Ms. Woods as an English teacher,” Yow said. “She was the only one in my 12 years of school that cared about me. She she was the only one that went out of her way to help me and help me pass English. She had two hearts for students. When I got hired as the teacher. I’m like, ‘I want to be Ms. Woods.’”

Eleventh grader Meghan Joyner has seen in Yow what Yow saw in Woods. 

“Mr. Yow is a great teacher,” she said. “I definitely like the connections I have made. It’s just a really fun class in general. I have learned a lot. I came in here barely able to put down mortar and now I am able to lay like a full wall and it actually look really decent.”

Although she is not sure that a career in masonry is for her, she does attribute the class to opening her eyes to a trade craft possibility.

“I am thinking about going into electrical or welding,” Joyner said.

Reflecting on it, Yow said, “I think the reason they did name me CTE teacher of the year is because of those relationships with students.”

Amy Overcash, who works in the front office, championed Yow as the pick.

“There is no one more deserving,” Overcash said.