Story By: Wyatt Smith
DEATSVILLE, Ala. — When many people think of their kindergarten teacher, they see a kind person teaching them their alphabet and basic math, but one former teacher has much more to his story than most of his students will ever know. Mike Hodum is a small town farmer who leads preschool through middle school classes on field trips of his farm, but that is far from his entire story.
Hodum grew up working his family’s tobacco farm with his four siblings, and as the third child, he would not receive a Pell Grant to fund his college education because his older siblings had used the family’s share of the grant. Hodum felt like he was running out of options and opted to join the Navy for four years to work on ships as he traveled the world, but a small hiccup would change his path forever…