Down the M hallway is a guy who not only can create art, but can also create music, freestyle rap, and even give advice regarding finances. 

Art teacher Cliffton Seemann is a jack of all trades but getting to where he is now has been a long journey. 

Seemann started out working after high school in a factory when he later decided to pursue accounting and finance. 

“I grew up poor and I didn’t want to be poor and I saw what things I didn’t want,” Seemann said. “I knew that the easiest thing to do was to study how to make money so that I could be successful.”

When Seemann got to his last year of college he ran out of money, so to create income to finish out his school he created and sold music. 

“I made instrumental music on a program called Fruity Loops. It was a drum and synthesizer program that you could get for free on the computer. I joined an online group called SoundClick and I found a whole bunch of people who were buying and selling music,” Seemann said. 

Seemann later started up his own page on SoundClick and slowly started selling some of his music and after some time he was able to make $5000-6000 to go towards covering his last year of schooling. 

After getting his two minor degrees in accounting and finance Seemann started working at a bank as an investment specialist and not only helped other people make more money but also learned how to make money for himself. 

Later on down the road, Seemann started volunteering to coach his children’s teams and later started volunteering for camps for his wife’s students, which sparked his interest in becoming a teacher. 

“Spending all my time doing all this stuff, and the only time I felt value was when I was helping younger kids become awesome adults,” Seemann said. 

After thinking about it, Seemann went back to school to become a teacher. After four years of schooling he started working at the elementary schools in Plain Local and then later on at GlenOak High School. 

But when picking a subject to teach, art hit close to home with Seemann. When he was young, his home life was unsteady and creating art was a way to get him through. 

“When I would leave school it wasn’t stable and the only thing that would keep me grounded and keep me feeling comfortable was to know that I could create something and that to me was what I had to teach because that’s what still keeps me safe and sane,” Seemann said. 

Seemann’s whole goal in becoming a teacher is to help as many people as he can and he loves what he does. Every morning he is excited to come to work and see what difference he can make in people’s lives.

“From all of the things I have done professionally, no matter what you wake up and there are those days where you don’t want to go to work but I’m still waiting for those days here,” Seemann said. “I honestly don’t feel that when I wake up and it’s kind of awesome. Immediately I start thinking about who I’m going to see and what students are going to walk through the door that day and what stories they’re going to have and how I can make them laugh.”