How football, faith, passion shaped JHS science teacher Andy Helle's career in education

When talking with longtime Jackson High School science teacher Andy Helle, his passion for his career as an educator is evident. But things didn’t begin that way.

After graduating from Oakville High School in St. Louis, Helle wasn’t 100% sure he knew what he wanted to do with his life. Planning to attend Southeast Missouri State University to play football, his parents told him they would pay for his education so long as he had a plan for what job he wanted to do with his degree. That’s when Helle settled on teaching.

“They said, ‘It's OK if it changes, but the entire time that you're in school, you need to be in school with a job in mind,’” Helle said. “Day one freshman year, I had to say what it was, and I thought, ‘I could see myself as a teacher.’ But the idea of it terrified me at the time. I was not anywhere near prepared to do any of that, but the more I went through the program, the more I realized this is who I am.”

Helle played linebacker for the SEMO football team, however, he would argue he didn’t play much at all despite lettering three years on the then-Indians’ special teams. Although he didn’t see too much time on the field, Helle said playing college football helped him with his education more than he expected.

“Historically, athletes, particularly football athletes, have had a propensity to not go to class, to fail out and then disappear off the face of the earth,” Helle said. “To ensure that we didn't do that, they made us go to eight or 10 hours of study hall. We had to go to the library every week and report. …

“It was the best thing that could have ever happened, because I'm already kind of ADHD and focus is not my forte. That forced me to sit there. The amount of homework that I had didn't really take that quantity of time, even the studying, because I went to every class, I paid attention in class and I asked questions, which is also a huge deal. But I had time to do a meticulous job on my homework.”

While attending SEMO, Helle, who grew up attending the Lutheran Church, became more in touch with his spirituality. He credited his next-door neighbor in the dormitory, Tongan teammate James Williams, for helping him grow his faith, which remains a focal point of his life.

Helle said Williams, whom he called “Big James”, was a “rock-solid man of faith” who didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs. The two were members of the university’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization, which helped Helle find a group of students who helped him stay on the straight and narrow.

“We got into a group of people that were firm in their faith and unwavering because there is a lot of temptation,” Helle said. “There's a lot of people that make a lot of bad choices in college that wreck their lives in a lot of different ways. I'm just very thankful to have been surrounded by good, godly people who wanted the right things.”

Getting started

Helle’s passion for being an educator truly began when he started student teaching. After observing students and teaching a class or two at a couple of schools, Helle landed at Chaffee Jr./Sr. High School for an eight-week stint as a student teacher. At the time, he wasn’t sure teaching was what he wanted to do after graduation and was leaning toward a career in ministry before ultimately finding his calling.

“I felt like God was going to use me for some kind of ministry. But it was when I started teaching these kids that I was like, ‘This is it, this is my ministry. This is who I am.’ I felt so at home teaching those kids biology, and I have loved my job ever since.”

After completing his time at Chaffee, Helle did another eight-week student teaching stint at Jackson High School. After graduating from SEMO in May of 2001, Helle said he painted houses over the summer to make ends meet before landing a full-time gig teaching at JHS, where he has continued to work for the past 24 years.

Helle’s first two years were somewhat hectic. He didn’t have his own classroom, requiring him to switch rooms and even travel to Jackson Junior High School, multiple times per day. His office, at the time, was a chemical storage area behind another teacher’s classroom.

“I taught three different subjects in five different classrooms at two different schools for my first two years,” Helle said.

Early in his career as an educator, Helle had reservations. He struggled financially early on working at JHS, and was leaning toward leaving the profession altogether. It wasn’t until he had a conversation with then-principal Rick McClard explaining that he was considering moving onto another career that he decided to stick around.

Helle said McClard had seen something in him and ultimately “took a chance” on him. McClard asked him what it would take to keep him around.

“He said, ‘Maybe we can find you some other things to do to help supplement that,’” Helle said. “So I was teaching some after-school technology courses to teachers, I ended up teaching summer school and I helped maintain the school's website. It was extra things that they had me do to get me over a certain (amount). He brought the superintendent in to have this conversation and the superintendent didn't really want to come off of any money, but we sat there, we came up with it and I'm able to still be here today because of it.”

‘Why do I even exist?’

Since Helle became a teacher, many aspects of the profession have changed, largely because of technology giving students immediate access to information. This made Helle question his role as a teacher until the COVID-19 pandemic came along.

“Now the kids have all of the information in their pocket, so it was like, ‘Why do I even exist?’ Which was a question I struggled with until COVID,” Helle said. “At that moment, I felt justified in my existence, because they need a teacher to create structure. They need a teacher to model what being a human being is. Interacting with other people and being a role model is what they need. They need a teacher to help.”

After school

Since his children have all graduated high school, Helle has become heavily involved with after-school activities and has sponsored multiple clubs for students to participate in such as Guitar Club, Club Med, 3D Printing Club and Chess Club.

A teacher at the junior high, Brock Allen, sponsored a guitar club at the junior high, but when students came to high school, they didn’t have that guidance. Helle — who is a musician and performs in a worship group at his church with his wife, Heather — relented to sponsoring the club at the high school after a student persistently asked him to do so.

Since the club began, it’s grown exponentially. Initially, the club had just a few students, and while it “waxes and wanes” each year, this year’s club is averaging 60 students at its weekly meetings. Club members had planned to perform to each other during their weekly after-school meetings throughout November, which Helle called “Show-vember”. The performances ended up extending into December, or “Show-cember”.

The club was tasked with playing one of the school district’s recent “Spring Fever Reliever” events, a day where students are able to play games and enjoy some free time near the end of the school year. Helle recruited special education teacher Eric Wilke to play the drums with the group, and the rest is history.

“(Wilke) has got chops. Oh my gosh,” Helle said. “He elevated the level of what we were into something good. We were OK, but when he locked everything in with his rock-steady beat, my gosh, what a drummer.”

Since Helle is an anatomy teacher, Club Med came about after a former student, Emma Silliman, requested he sponsor a club for students interested in medical science. Helle told Silliman, who is the daughter of Saint Francis Medical Center surgeon William Ray Silliman, he didn’t have much time to assist, but would sponsor it if she could do most of the legwork.

“She ran it for two years, and we didn't have a single month where we didn't have (a guest speaker),” Helle said. “We had a physical therapist, a dentist, a nurse, a nurse practitioner and medical School students from Mizzou who were doing a rotation under (William Ray) Silliman to answer questions about what med school is like.”

Helle said he has approximately 30 students who participate in the Chess Club. Helle, along with math teacher Kenton Roeckenhaus and federal prosecutor Chris Shelton, have built a team that travels and regularly competes in the Gateway Chess League in the St. Louis area.

“Coach Chris (Shelton) always says, ‘It's such a beautiful game,’” Helle said. “He says, ‘There's no advantage. You have all of the same pieces that I do. There's no luck involved.’ …  I have all the same pieces you do that do all the same things that yours do. The only thing is me versus you.”

Before school

Despite being busy teaching classes and sponsoring after-school activities, Helle still finds time to practice his faith, which is a major pillar in his life.

“I answer to God for everything that I do, every word that I say, every choice that I make and every impact that I have or don't have in the lives of young people. I answer to God for that,” Helle said. “On my way to school every day, I pray a couple of prayers. I pray, ‘God, love through me, teach through me today. Use me for your glory.’ I pray, ‘Let your kingdom come and your will be done in my heart and my life above all. Let me want nothing and no one more than you now or ever, nothing even close.’

“My focus is that I am here to be a vessel and to be used for his glory in whatever way that is, and that largely has led me to all of these things. Here are kids that would like to be involved in guitar, to meet other kids that play music or play chess, want to learn how to 3D print, are interested in the medical field or anatomy or just have questions about life. I'm here to be a servant, a vessel. I answer to God, and I couldn't be more pleased with where he's got me.”