Power Puncher

Dynamic Kentucky IT educator hits above her weight while helping students find success

- Calvin Harper

 IT instructor Debra Gruber is just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, but she strides like a colossus through the halls of McCracken County High School, in Paducah, Ky. Gruber is the sort of teacher we all needed — one who pulls you into their orbit and changes your life in ways you never thought possible.

A combination of Mother Teresa and a Marine Corps drill-instructor, Gruber loves her students and will do whatever it takes to help them achieve success, all while taking “absolutely no (flak) out of them.”

“My mission is to change this world one student at a time,” she said. “I am here to help students learn the skills needed to transition to the world beyond high school.”

And transition they do. “Many of our students are able to walk out of our IT programs and land jobs making more money than I am,” she said. Her students are so skilled that local businesses are now contacting them to create websites.

Preparing students for the real world

Two powerful and effective aspects of Gruber’s teaching style are an emphasis on employability skills and a refreshingly brutal honesty. “I incorporate employability skills, along with the tech stuff, at every opportunity,” she said. “I tell my students that soft skills matter. Showing up on time, doing your job without excuses, and working with others are very important.

“If you don’t have soft skills, it don’t matter how many IT skills you have, you won’t be able to find or keep a job.”

Tough love is a Gruber classroom trait that new students often find surprising. “I’m a fun, but strict teacher,” she said. Students adhere to firm schedules for attendance and assignments, and those who are late quickly learn that there is a price to be paid.