Longtime AACPS Music Educator Transitions Into New Career At The U.S. Naval Academy

After 38 years of teaching music across Anne Arundel County Public Schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels, Rob Stojakovich is embarking on a new challenge with the U.S. Naval Academy’s Drum and Bugle Corps.

Stojakovich grew up surrounded by music. His grandfather and father were both musicians. His father played for the Army Band while he was stationed in Fort Meade during the Korean War.

Starting at 8 years old, Stojakovich and his family, which included his two older brothers and an older sister, performed in a family band around western Pennsylvania.

“By the time I was 11, I’d already performed at 100 weddings and country club functions,” Stojakovich said.

When he went to Duquesne University, Stojakovich was originally interested in studying music composition, but changed his mind when he did his student teaching.

“I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to pursue education at that time, versus composition,” said Stojakovich, who spent the last 11 years at Magothy River Middle School following stints at Southern High, Southern Middle, South River High School, Edgewater Elementary, Bates Middle School and Chesapeake High.

He enjoys starting at the beginning of a learning cycle and guiding his students to their final concert, youth symphony or performance at the end of that education cycle. Each group will have a different personality makeup than the previous year, even if some students return.

“It's always a clean slate and it's always a chance to create something new and to watch their minds at work and their skills develop over the course of that time,” Stojakovich said.

Across all the schools he has served, Stojakovich has found that the key to his success in teaching is by fostering connections with students.

“The one commonality amongst all the levels is students are more successful if you build culture and connection first, and then worry about content later,” he said.

Throughout his career, Stojakovich has enjoyed working with many administrators and teachers and witnessing all the ways that his colleagues work to connect with and teach their students.

“There are times where I've kind of walked through the hallways to go to the copier,” Stojakovich said. “Maybe I'll walk through the science hallway and see an incredible class in the hallway and (teachers are) physically showing them through an activity cycle, the stages of the moon. I see so much great education.”

One thing Stojakovich will miss about teaching kindergarten through grade 12 students is the energy.

“It's frantic energy,” Stojakovich said. “It’s kind of like riding a wave in the ocean. You can't beat it up. You have to ride it responsibly in the right direction. You learn to take the energy of that classroom and then re-channel that into something where they can focus and understand what the goal is.”

Although he is retired from his role as a public-school teacher, Stojakovich believes his work as an educator is far from over. He has started to work as the director of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Drum and Bugle Corps, which is now nearing the end of Plebe Summer, a training program for incoming freshmen from June through August. Plebe Summer is designed to prepare freshmen for the academy’s four-year curriculum.

“We start with kids, about 50% of whom have never played an instrument before, and by the end of the summer will put on a performance for their upper classmates,” Stojakovich said. “We’re in the middle of that educational cycle now. It’s exciting to see where we started and the possibilities of that final performance.”

The time he has with his students can consist of only a couple of hour-long classes before their national TV performances on Saturdays, but his students have risen to the challenge.

“They're amazingly smart and quick and clever,” Stojakovich said. “You go over some concepts, you explain it, they try it. You make a correction, they try to get it, they get it.”

Stojakovich is also excited about helping U.S. Naval Academy students prepare to serve America in the military.

“These kids, some of them are rocket scientists and they'll be leaders of men and women in battle,” Stojakovich said. “They're willing to do the hard stuff. So, to me, the perk of the job is whatever I can do to help.”