Columnist Susan Snyder: A teacher with a lot of class

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004 | 8:17 a.m.

David Wonpu says sometimes the best friend a kid can have is a teacher.

"You hear all these (negative) things about public schools, but I've actually had very good experiences with a lot of my teachers," said Wonpu, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas freshman.

One of his teachers was so good, Wonpu wrote an essay about him that has been published in a new book, "Teaching with Love, Laughter & Lemonade."

Wonpu's story was among 97 chosen and compiled by Las Vegas author Paul S. Bodner, owner of Dad's Lemonade Stand publishing (www.DadsLemonadeStand.com).

Bodner collected more than 7,000 essays from schoolchildren across the country as part of a national scholarship contest in 2003. The assignment was to write about a teacher whose influence made a positive, life-altering impact.

In addition to having a story printed, one of the student authors received a $500 scholarship. Deadline for this year's contest is April 1. (Check the website for details.)

Wonpu didn't win the money. But he was the only Nevada student whose essay was published.

Wonpu entered UNLV with a junior's status because of credits he accumulated in high school. But he's not sure where he'd have ended up without the help of Robert Nielson.

Nielson was a history teacher at the Community College High School in North Las Vegas, which Wonpu attended for his last two years of high school.

An only child with high academic goals, Wonpu transferred into CCHS from the Advanced Technology Academy. Nielson, who now teaches at J.D. Smith Middle School, was Wonpu's history teacher that first year at CCHS.

The next year he was Wonpu's savior. Wonpu had always worked hard and done well in school. But during his senior year he struggled with the inevitable question: What's next?

"It hit me out of nowhere, and put me in so much pain that I could feel it in every single pore," Wonpu wrote in his winning essay. "I hated myself."

He recalled going to school that morning in a deep funk with no one in whom he could confide. His parents were at work, and among his friends he "was always the counselor, not the counseled."

Then he remembered Nielson.

"Mr. Nielson not only had the most thought-provoking mind I've ever been in the presence of, he was also a friend," Wonpu wrote. "There was always something so good about him, as if he could uncover the truth behind even the most complicated of teenage ramblings."

Wonpu's essay describes how he told Nielson about his fears of facing the "real world" and how he felt as if no one would miss him if he died.

Nielson assured Wonpu he was capable of handling the future and would be missed most by "the people that you yourself don't notice."

"He told me that in time, I would discover my place in the world," Wonpu wrote.

Wonpu says he is on his way to that discovery. He is studying accounting and writes for the Rebel Yell, UNLV's student newspaper. He might become a certified public accountant. Or he might not.

"I don't know what the future holds," he said last week.

But thanks to a teacher, he's not afraid of it.