GRINNELL, Iowa — Mike Hunter has lived and worked in Poweshiek County his entire life. He graduated from Grinnell High School and has taught in its classrooms for the last 15 years. This school year will be his last year at the high school before going back to school for his doctoral degree.

Hunter thought he’d only last a few years as a teacher but has found fulfillment teaching students math, a subject that mirrors life’s constant problem solving to find a positive outcome.

“It’s really an important lesson to learn, myself included, to know how to pick yourself back up when it didn’t work the first time,” he says.

Principal Kevin Seney describes Hunter as the most intelligent and generous person he’s ever worked alongside.

“It doesn’t make a difference what kind of student it is, he wants absolutely what’s best for them both academically and socially and emotionally as well.”

That was the case when Hunter took in one of his students who was on the brink of homelessness. Justine Raney, a senior at the high school, says she was abused and kicked out of her home last school year. Hunter, who does not have any children of his own, said the decision to have Raney stay with him and his wife, indefinitely, was an easy decision.

“To have a student come in and say ‘I need some help’ and you’re able to help them whether it’s with math or housing, is a really good feeling.”

Raney says living under a roof where she was not being yelled at allowed her to escape the trauma she says she was experiencing and allowed her to focus on school work. Raney will graduate this year with a handful of full-tuition scholarship offers to four-year schools.

“He’s essentially my dad. He saved me from being a homeless kid and from not having a future and he pulled me out of the poverty I was living in and brought me into a place where I could focus on school,” Raney says.

Hunter was awarded the Golden Apple on March 4th, 2022.