“Good Morning,“ beams Dan Schoun, jittery as an extrovert with ADHD.

Like a mischievous young schoolboy unable to sit still in class, Dan is bubbling over with excitement about his first love: Physics.

“I hadn’t met my wife, Judy, before I learned about physics,” quips Dan with the grin of a guy who has entirely too much fun making people groan at his jokes.

It turns out, his first love brought him to Kettering, but not exactly how you might expect and certainly not the way Dan expected. Then again, you need to understand: Dan’s a pretty random guy; his life is full of the unexpected.

RANDOM THEORY
Five years ago, Dan dropped off his application to enter Kettering’s P.A. program. He figured, after 17 years teaching math, physics, chemistry, etc. at Spring Valley Academy he wanted to try something different.

“Edith Applegate in the PA department glanced over my resume,” recalls Dan. “So she asks me, ‘How’s about teaching instead of PA?’ Eight days later I’m teaching chemistry at Kettering.”

Random? Probably not.

Dan was convinced God had His hand in getting him the teaching job at Kettering, yet he was worried about the financial aspect of changing jobs.

“So anyways, it seemed like God was orchestrating circumstances to get me to teach at Kettering,” says Dan. “My thinking was, ‘O.K., God, I’ll teach at Kettering if you can work out the budget.’ I knew I was asking the impossible.”

Was God as good at orchestrating Dan’s life as He is the physical world?

Dan ran the numbers and he and Judy agreed on a threshold at which he could accept the position offered at Kettering. Then they decided to pray faithfully and wait for God’s answer.

A week later God answered: Dan’s contract was for $13.00 more than they budgeted.

CHAIN REACTION
As a chemistry and physics professor, Dan builds an essential foundation for Kettering’s health science students. “The important thing is to broaden the students’ minds beyond what’s in their own backyard,” says Dan. “Lots of students are focused on being a nurse or radiology technician, but the sciences stretch their minds and give them a broader spectrum of ideas.”

“Learning to solve problems with facts from different areas and knowing the sequential steps of getting from point A to point B to point C is vital in the field of healthcare,” adds Dan. “That’s exactly the kind of problem-solving, analysis, and step-by-step methodology they’ll need as nurses, PAs or RTs.”

HYPERACTIVE ORBIT
So back to the ADHD. Dan’s a husband, father of two, professor and currently working towards a Ph.D. in BioMedical Engineering. That’s enough to immobilize most people, but not Dan. When his curiosity needs a rest, he gets involved with people in his community. He is a volunteer fireman with the Sugarcreek Township Fire Department and worked with a Disaster Medical Assistance Team as a communications specialist during the floods in Texas and after the September 11 attacks in New York City.

For fun, Dan goes to Revolutionary and Civil War reenactments. He was in the 125th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg (along with 15,000 enactors!) and portrayed a surgeon in George Washington’s Army in the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Monmouth.

“I guess you could say I like to live vicariously,” says Dan, referring to both his hobby and his teaching. “My goal is to touch the life of a student who in turn goes out to touch the lives of many others. That way I live vicariously because a part of me goes with each student.”

Now that doesn’t seem that random after all, does it?