Mik Love wears many hats: Father, Coach, Leader, Mentor, and Son, but it’s been his lifelong passion for students finding their voices and their paths that have led Mik to where he is now – Empowered‘s Director of Training and Events.
Mik Love‘s passion is clear. He adores the idea of a student being able to find themselves in and discover more about not only who they are, but the value that they can create in a way that is meaningful to them.
This passion started with a father who was a successful educator in Wichita, Kansas, and continued with a very personal transformation as a learner himself. “I struggled with reading, and it is probably accurate to say that I didn’t really read until the seventh or eighth grade.”
His second-grade teacher did a real number on Mik’s confidence, and it wasn’t until he entered the third grade that things started to change. The positive transformation in Mik started with a supportive family, change of school, and a third-grade teacher who truly saw Mik and his gifts.
“The best thing is that I had a mother and a father who understood the importance of education, but also understood the importance of my self-worth and the value that I have.”
MIK LOVE, EMPOWERED
“The best thing is that I had a mother and a father who understood the importance of education, but also understood the importance of my self-worth and the value that I have,” said Mik. Third grade was a new start.
“Her name is Ms. Mender, and she started to instill those values in me, and it didn’t start with education,” said Mik. “She started with her trying to find the things that I was passionate about.” Once she realized it was sports, she found her path. She found a book about Michael Jordan and said we’d start with his statistics. That ignited a passion for learning in Mik. One that burns to this day.
“Let’s just read about basketball,” she said to Mik. She found a way to make learning applicable to his journey, and it made all the difference. He now uses that journey to help others use Empowered.
“Teachers build these relationships every day. They’re the people to champion this idea of how to teach and create the conditions of a classroom that allow students to flourish,” said Mik. Now within his job of training, Mik helps develop more teachers around this idea of how to teach principals, markets, and mindset, and why is it so important.
With the knowledge that Empowered teachers share, students will leverage these principles as a framework from which to think. They will always make decisions from the time they wake up to the time they close their eyes. “They are making decisions that impact not only themselves but others including the concepts of responsibility and sound judgment,” said Mik.
“Empowered is not just in a classroom. These are real world application in real world markets.” The world needs more people using their smarts and teachers who are passionate about students, and Mik Love is committed to sharing that message with as many educators as possible.