Standing out, yet fitting in.

Special education teacher Trevor Swearingen has stood out among teachers by having a very positive and outgoing personality yet he remains to fit in with teachers and students.

Swearingen is a new special education teacher and he plans on impacting the lives of as many students as he can. He works alongside with chemistry teacher Lauren Battcher by dedicating time to students to further explain instructions or help when necessary, by doing this Swearingen has created a positive atmosphere in the classroom setting. Aside from teaching he has a job in radio where he works in promotion for 99.7 DJX, this job allows him to frequently go to public events and concerts.

Swearingen was often told by his family and former teachers that he would make an excellent teacher, something that, at the time he couldn’t see himself doing because he was very firm about pursuing a career in the radio industry, in which he thought he could fulfill his passion of informing, inspiring, educating and entertaining. It wasn’t until later when he realized that being in radio and not having a live audience meant not knowing the magnitude of his impact because he didn’t receive many reactions or feedback and even when he did, it was on social media instead of in person. Swearingen went to high school at Bullitt Central and worked there before coming to Bullitt East. Because of the vast amount of experienced teachers there are and being a new teacher, he felt under-qualified to be a teacher here. After his interview he had over the summer, he knew this was the school for him and stated that him working here felt right to him. Although Swearingen had only recently decided to become a teacher and is new to Bullitt East this year, he already feels as if he fits in and has made connections with several students. 

“I do feel like I belong here, I don’t feel out of place, it automatically felt like family. I can’t even explain how much I feel like I fit in here, like I’ve only been here for a month and a half and I don’t feel new, like I feel new physically, mentally and like stresswise but when it comes to my coworkers I don’t feel new,” said Swearingen.

Swearingen prides himself on being a trusting and relatable figure to students. He works hard to ensure that the students know they are cared for and have someone to talk to. “There’s a couple kids I know that I’ve impacted but my goal is to impact as many students as I can. Even in high school I knew that being relatable was something that I wanted to work on and I think that’s something that I’m really good at. With these kids you never know, like I look back on myself through a high schoolers eyes, you don’t know what they’re going through, you don’t know what their home life is like so I just try to be understanding because I think sometimes with teachers there’s this whole no excuse mentality or this whole toughness mentality and these kids really just need love and nature because they don’t get it at home and so I hope that I bring that to my students,” said Swearingen.

Working with Battcher, Swearingen helped her become excited to teach again by having such a positive outlook and passion for helping students. She defines his energy as refreshing and positive because of his attitude and genuine heart. His ability to connect with students because of the fact that it wasn’t and remaining pop cultural literate. “He always has a positive attitude and positive spirit about him, he’s very energetic. I’ve worked with other co-teachers since I’ve been here at Bullitt East and I’ve never had one that’s just so interactive so it’s fun, I think we feed off of each others personalities and it just makes class enjoyable,” said Battcher.

In Swearingen’s off-time from teaching, he works part-time at 99.7 DJX. He always planned on pursuing broadcasting whether it was on radio or a news channel. Two years ago he went to a national radio talent bootcamp and became certified as a radio marketing expert. In high school, he was a part of his school yearbook and journalism program. While in this program he brought back the school newspaper and completely dedicated himself to journalism in hopes of one day being a news anchor and even having his own talk show. Today, he still looks up to several journalists or news anchors such as Ann Curry and Tamron Hall. “Radio is still a passion of mine so now I’m balancing two different things on my plate, that’s why I still work in radio because at any opportunity I could quit but it’s always been a passion of mine,” said Swearingen.

Students who have him and Battcher in the same class think that he manages to make class not only more interactive but also easier to understand in some cases. Junior Brynna Crump stated that he has a different way of explaining things and also gives students tricks on how to remember the content in an easier way aside from just memorizing. “He’s young and is into some of the things we are, we were actually doing TikTok dances together the other day and he was joking around about my Peppa Pig project too. He gets what it’s like to be in high school now and he seems really cultured,” said Crump.

After being told for years that teaching is the job for him and turning a blind eye at those comments, Swearingen finally found what he was meant to do and plans to take his ability to inform, inspire, educate and entertain with him and apply to all aspects of his life.