Principled Leadership

Grant Hegstad ’10 is the product of good guidance. He knows that. When describing the direction he received in career preparation, Hegstad uses words such as intentionality, relationship, affirmation and career training.

Now as the MOC-Floyd Valley High School assistant principal, Hegstad uses those qualities and methods to do for high school students what NWC professors did for him. They helped him find his place in the professional world, and he wants to return the favor and help high school students find theirs.

Evidenced by the numbers, students want this too. Under Hegstad’s leadership, student participation at the school’s career center has quadrupled over the past four years. The Milken Family Foundation noticed this, and Hegstad’s other educational contributions, and awarded him a national Milken Educator Award, an honor that includes $25,000 he can use however he wants.

The award, known as the “Oscars of Teaching,” isn’t one for which educators can apply or be nominated. Instead, the Milken Family Foundation searches for and selects teachers they want to honor. 

Last February, at an all-school assembly in Orange City, only the principal and superintendent knew what was about to happen. Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow spoke, followed by Dr. Jane Folley of the Milken Family Foundation; they announced Hegstad as a 2023–24 recipient.

“I had no idea I was receiving this award,” Hegstad says. “It was a pretty incredible surprise.”

The foundation commended him as someone who cares about the long-term well-being of students personally and professionally. That caring takes place at the school’s career center, where under Hegstad’s leadership, students acquire training and employment at area organizations, leading to job offers post-graduation. The center’s partnership base is expanding to include medical and educational fields—all engineered to help students find out what they like and are good at. 

This is part of God’s plan, which Hegstad references while describing his work with a nod to Northwestern’s mission statement: “My hope is that I can consistently engage in courageous and faithful learning and living that empowers me to follow Christ and pursue his redeeming work in the world.”