It’s obvious that no matter how hard one plans for something to happen, there’s no guarantee that it will turn out that way. Change is inevitable, and it’s one thing that just seems to happen.

Mr. Stefan Muller is no stranger to change, for he’s constantly changing his life for the better. His biggest change came back when he decided to go beyond being a teacher to become a high school administrator. That moment led him to his big move to North Penn where he resides in the assistant principal’s office in home office D103.

Right out of high school, Muller attended the United States Coastal Academy instead of pursuing teaching, “I knew in high school that I wanted to teach, but the Coast Guard Academy was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” commented Muller. After one year, he decided to leave the Academy to study secondary education at Bloomsburg University.

During his college career, Muller student taught at William Tennet High School, and then once out of college, he landed a job at Upper Moreland High School as a social studies teacher for the next nine years.

In the beginning part of his professional career, Muller said that it was all about “diving into the profession, making mistakes and trying to get better.”

Towards the latter part, he started looking for more professional developments because “I needed to do better,” he said “I realized what it was that I needed to do to be a better teacher. I started doing more and taking on more responsibilities [and] leadership opportunities.”

It was around that time that Muller found himself taking his first steps towards becoming an administrator.

But it wasn’t just his establishments within the professional environment that made him look towards administration. Outside of the classroom at Upper Moreland, Muller spent a majority of his time coaching wrestling.

His experiences as a coach opened his eyes to a whole other side of education, “When you’re a coach, you’re constantly trying to deal with fifteen types of people. You have all these different constituents, so that helped pave the way for taking that step out and getting into administration.”

When he and his wife had kids, Muller unfortunately had to quit coaching. Lucky for him, though, he was able to intensify his responsibilities as an educator by leading professional development groups and also becoming a department chair.

Administration was starting to become a natural fit for Muller, so soon enough, he made the executive decision to go back to school to Cabrini College to earn his administrative certification. Not long after, he was named assistant principal at Downingtown West High School.

“I landed the perfect first gig for a guy coming out of the classroom,” said Muller “All of the elements and the atmosphere there allowed me to be successful. I had a great principal who was a phenomenal mentor to me. [He] took care of people, really developed relationships, and put that as one of the things he wanted to focus on.”

It was hard leaving behind such an influential school, but Muller has found similar connections in just three weeks at North Penn, “If I compare [Downingtown West] to here, Mr. Bauer does the same thing. He’s just very student centered and teacher focused. I definitely have that [same relationship] here at North Penn.”

Between Mr. Bauer and the rest of the faculty and staff at North Penn, Muller said “Overall, it’s been a really nice transition. The faculty and staff here have been excellent to me, just being personable and friendly. There are a lot of logistical little pieces going on, but it’s been a positive experience.”

Above that, the spontaneity of the job is what Muller enjoys the most, for he’s always looking forward to the next curveball thrown his way. He knows the game is constantly changing, but that’s exactly what he likes about his position.

But sometimes, the position can be a little too challenging he said, for he loses valuable time with his four young kids, Chase, Nevaeh, Saige, and Marigot.

Even though this job is time consuming, it’s more to Muller than just helping out current North Penn students. He’s looking forward to the future to implement his own ideas so that incoming students, including his own four kids, also have a positive experience at North Penn.

“I like the idea that I can help mold that Rubik’s cube for when they come through. I’m more invested than just being a taxpayer. I’m invested because my kids are going to come through here at some point,” said Muller.

With that, even being a North Penn administrator for just a short number of weeks, Muller was confident in saying that he “trust[s] that [North Penn] is headed in the right direction.”