Teacher Feature: Mr. Harvan

Mr. Andrew Harvan is one of the three computer science teachers here at Crofton High School.

A Crofton native for most of his life, Mr. Harvan was a student at Crofton Meadows Elementary, Crofton Middle School, and South River High School. Mr. Harvan graduated from Boston College in 2020, and since then, he describes his career as, “interesting to say the least”. He was an intern at the United State Department of Agriculture, Travel Policy and Systems Branch, and from there he worked at the local business Chesapeake Sports Cards. “After working there for just over a year,” he says, “I applied to become a teacher and here I am.”

“To be completely honest, becoming a teacher was never really part of any plan I had, it was a spur of the moment decision” recalls Mr. Harvan. His mother-in-law and father-in-law are both teachers, and after hearing a remark from his father-in-law that he would make a good teacher, Mr. Harvan began seriously considering it. “In the end, I viewed it as giving back to the community I lived in and making a small difference in some students’ lives sounded like a good thing.”

The decision to want to work at CrHS was clear to Mr. Harvan. “The commute was a huge factor,” he says. “Also I liked the idea of having my fresh start be at a school that is just starting on its own. This year is the first year with seniors in the building, so even though I’m not here at the official school start, I’m pretty close.” His wife is also the assistant coach of the Crofton women’s volleyball team. “So whenever I want to go to a game to support her, I can also support some of the students I teach.”

Having spent most of his time in computer science classes throughout high school and college, Mr. Harvan feels it allowed him a strong base to teach from. He believes that Computer science is a gateway to many careers, especially in Maryland. “It’s also just a fun field to teach,” he states. “As far as first year subjects to teach, I doubt I could have picked a better one.”

A moment in his class that has stood out to him was his first day teaching without a monitoring teacher. “So many days before and after that day I woke up every morning so stressed and thought ‘I can’t do this, this was a dumb idea.’ Then after that first full day on my own I realized, I could do this and everything was going to be ok.”

A student in Mr. Harvans AP Computer Science Principles class, 10th grader Grant Murphy recounts his favorite memory. “My favorite memory from Mr. Harvans class was when he incorporated what we were learning into real life, with an activity in class,” he explains. Murphy states, “We were learning about how to find the average of a data set with the least amount of steps possible, and we got up, and moved around the class sharing our birthdays, trying to find the middleman.” 

Murphy says that it is important to have a good teacher for computer science. When thinking of his own, Murphy further explains, “He is passionate about the topic which keeps the students engaged, and keeps them interested in the subject.”