In his short time at OVS, he has done it all. From Garage Band to surfing to AP History, Tyson Luneau has impacted the small community in a variety of aspects, and students are sad to see him leave.
Mr. Luneau originally began his time at OVS in the fall of 2022 teaching regular U.S. and World History as well as AP World History and AP United States History. Next year, however, he is off to the State University of New York at the Courtland campus.
Junior Chloe Ronning is a student of Mr. Luneau who initially struggled with the rigorous AP World History course but quickly adapted and ultimately received a 5 on her AP test at the end of the year. She credits Mr. Luneau for a big part of her success.
“I definitely learned better note-taking skills. The cool thing is those skills have helped me in my other classes as well.” Chloe said, “I also definitely learned some good time management skills with the amount of material and homework that definitely helped me get a 5 in the end.”
Andrew Little is another junior who took AP World History with Mr. Luneau, and Andrew attributes Mr. Luneau’s teaching strategies to his newfound interest in history.
“I’ve never been a huge fan of history, but with Mr. Luneau, it’s not that bad,” said Andrew. “I mean, the class is hard, but Mr. Luneau makes the work fun. Sometimes we play games on stuff we’re learning, and it’s actually fun but also helpful.”
Both Andrew and Chloe continue to excel this year in AP U.S. History with Mr. Luneau. The APUSH class loves Mr. Luneau and even got him a cake to celebrate his accomplishment of earning a PhD.
This past year, Mr. Luneau proposed Environmental History and Justice, a new course exploring the effects humans have on the planet.
This year, in addition to his history and environmental classes, Mr. Luneau began supervising the OVS Garage Band. He began playing the bass in 8th grade, and his passion for music still thrives. Students appreciate his flexibility and initiative to have more performances.
Senior Donahi Soriano has been a huge part of the music and drama programs during her four years at OVS Upper. Donahi respects Mr. Luneau’s enthusiasm for music and is inspired by him.
“He is very passionate about music, and you can tell,” said Donahi. “He inspires us to challenge ourselves to try harder songs and become overall better musicians. Since he took over, we have had a lot more performance opportunities and tried new music styles.”
In addition to on-school endeavors, Mr.Luneau often leads an early morning surf trip before school. Dawn patrol gives students a way to be active before school starts.
Mr. Luneau has been working toward his PhD for five and a half years and finally earned it earlier this semester.
“I think one of the other factors that drove me toward it was an opportunity to make even a greater difference,” said Mr. Luneau. “I think a lot of the work that I do here is wonderful, and I’ve had a lot of really kind words from students here.”
At UAblany, Mr. Luneau will teach in the history department and oversee the department’s social studies teacher preparation program.
“I’m very excited, especially with the teacher prep program; it’s almost tailor-made to the things I like and like the things I have experience with,” said Mr. Luneau.
While students are sad to see him leave, they are excited for him to start a new chapter of his life.
“But I think sort of my impact factor being able to kind of help train the next generation of history teachers is pretty awesome,” he added. “So I’m very excited about that.”