Mr. Joel McMillon officially became the champion of The Blue & Gold’s ESPN March Madness tournament challenge on Monday, April 3. His correct pick of the champion, the No. 4 seeded UCONN Huskies, was instrumental in carrying him past the challenge’s runner-up, junior Jaeden Mustaf.

“I’m honored, obviously, but at the same time, it’s kind of funny because I’m not a big watcher of sports–of any sport,” McMillon said. “It was a surprise because I knew nothing. Like UCONN was just a pick because I like wolves. UCONN’s husky is very close to a wolf.”

Similarly surprising, to McMillon, was his path to teaching the twelfth-grade Bible apologetics course known as Understanding the Times at Carmel Christian School.

“I guess before I graduated high school, I felt God calling me into missions. And I thought when I left high school that I was going to pursue, like, medical missions,” McMillon reminisced. He ultimately switched from the pre-med track to a Bachelor’s in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English and Biology.

He remarked, “When I graduated high school, I had never even thought about the possibility of being a teacher. But now I couldn’t imagine being something else.”

McMillon met his wife, Izabella, teaching at a small Christian school in Durham, NC, and they married in 2006. Their son Kaleb, a seventh grader at CCS, was born in 2009, and their daughter Naomi Joy, a fifth grader at CCS, was born in 2012. Kaleb plays soccer and is learning golf, and Naomi Joy cheers competitively.

In addition to spending time with his children, McMillon enjoys building relationships with his students.

He said of teaching, “Rapport with students is probably my favorite part […] for whatever reason, I feel like I relate better even with my students than I do with grown-ups.”

Engaging in video games is a frequent talking point between McMillon and his students. McMillon stated he enjoys the feeling of accomplishment he garners from video games, especially role-playing games (RPGs) like Hogwarts Academy, as well as the way he can often personalize the gameplay experience.

While he believes video games are ultimately “a colossal waste of time,” he enjoys the “moments of perceived victory” and finds that video games allow him to connect to the next generation, including his students.

“It may reveal immaturity in my personality that I get along so well with teenagers, but I just, I enjoy the next generation […] I enjoy learning what the next generation is into and interested in, and watching growth, I guess, because it’s such a formative time,” he said.

McMillion’s intentionality in developing relationships with his students and understanding future generations shows a key part of his personality: he is accepting.

He reflected, “One of the things that my wife loves […] most about me is she says that for whatever reason, I have a way of being able to accept people as they are […] We all have growth, right, that we need and maturity and things like that. But sometimes, you just need someone to accept you at this point.”

He told the story of a man named Jason which illustrates his point. At the recommendation of his parents, Jason began attending McMillon’s church after serving time in prison. Because Jason did not grow up in a Christian environment, he made statements and spoke in ways that were considered off-color by many members of the church, of which McMillon was the college ministry intern.

“This was just who he was. And no one had ever told him different, and he and I became really good friends,” McMillon remembered.

McMillon accepted the role of ensuring Jason was always invited to and in attendance at events, until one day McMillon was invited to an event and asked to not bring any guests, a clear implication Jason was not invited. After considering the situation, McMillon told the hosts of the event he would not attend without Jason.

The accepting nature illustrated in this story was cultivated by McMillon’s own experiences. One of the individuals he stated was most influential in his life was Charles Kwoen. Kwoen was his first youth pastor, and he had intentional faith conversations with McMillon and ensured McMillon could attend church events despite the events’ low financial priority in McMillon’s non-affluent family.

McMillon said, “I don’t know where it ever came from, but he always made sure that there is enough money available that me and my sister would be able to go to on each of those events […] He was very accepting of me in my circumstances, so maybe that’s where I picked up being accepting of other people.”

He also attributes his accepting nature to the frequency with which he moved as a child.

“Every time I moved, I had to get to know a new group of friends, a new system in the school, you know, all this different stuff,” he said. “I was one of those loners that could float into different crowds through school, but I never had my own group […] So to some degree, I guess I felt kind of like a lone wolf but yet wanted a pack.”

The wolf association led him to collect wolf paraphernalia, develop the moniker “praynwolf” for gaming usernames and an email address and even correctly pick the UCONN Huskies to win the NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Tournament.

He stated, “I’ve always thought that wolves were just beautiful, yet misunderstood, creatures: very strong, very relational.”

McMillon’s relationality characterizes him greatly, but he hopes his efforts as the lone wolf who accepts anyone into his pack point to Christ, encourage his students to love others well and show that “teachers care.”

“I hope what students get from me, I think, is that living a life for Christ is worth it,” he said, explaining that following and being shaped by Jesus is worth it even in hardship. 

He added, “There’s so much division in our world and so many people attacking each other that as a follower of Jesus, that just shouldn’t be a part of who we are,” he said.

In essence, McMillon entreats students to love God and love their neighbors as themselves, mimicking the accepting lone wolf as he himself mimics Christ Jesus.