Walk the halls of Edgewood Middle School in Warsaw, Indiana, and you’ll find Kyle Allison teaching business and computer science to seventh and eighth graders in the very same building where he once walked as a middle schooler himself!
After 11 years working in higher education athletics and administration, Kyle made the leap to the classroom through an alternative teacher certification program, completing Grace College’s Transition to Teaching program from summer 2025 to May 2026 while teaching full-time, coaching football and track, and welcoming a second child into his family.
So why did he choose to make the transition? And why Grace?
Teaching Full-Time While Earning a License
Kyle didn’t put his life on hold to become a teacher. Instead, he built the license around the teaching job he had already started.
Allison began Grace’s Transition to Teaching program six months after he began teaching. How was he already teaching? Indiana transition to teaching programs allow aspiring teachers to work under an emergency license for up to three years while completing an approved alternative teacher certification program, and Allison chose this pathway.
Though Allison had a lot on his plate, he found that the program’s flexibility worked around his schedule. With limited time, he learned the skills and abilities to be a teacher.
“I was teaching full-time, six class periods a day,” said Allison. “I actually coached football in the middle of that, as well as track and field, while maintaining a family. So a teaching license is definitely something that can be done if you’re willing to put in the time.”
Support That Showed Up When It Mattered
What stands out to Allison most, however, isn’t the program flexibility. It’s the support from his professors and classmates.
In the middle of his student teaching, Allison and his wife learned they were expecting their second child. Their daughter was born just three weeks before the semester finished.
“I will never forget the response that I got,” said Allison. “My professor reminded me that family came first. She even wanted pictures from the hospital after our daughter was born, and it made me feel like I mattered as a person, not just a student.”
While this was only a small moment, this attitude was shown throughout the alternative teacher certification program. Allison was very appreciative of the many faculty members who were willing to take phone calls and answer emails whenever he needed them.
They understood that he had a life outside of school, and they were willing to help him learn the skills and abilities to be a teacher while working through a schedule that included a newborn, a full teaching load, and two coaching sessions.
Allison also found support from fellow students in the program. Another teacher in the Warsaw school district was completing the same program alongside him.
“It was nice to be able to ask, ’Hey, are you understanding this assignment? Do you think that I did this right?’” said Allison. “It was nice knowing that there were other people in your cohort that were going through the same thing you were.”
