TECH-TO-TEACH PROVES 'FULFILLING' FOR BOTTOM LINE.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - For years, Zorko Jezina lived a jet-set life, zipping around the country and earning a six-digit salary telling America's top companies how to make their presence felt on the Internet.

With the dot.com collapse, Jezina, a college graduate who had deftly commanded board meetings, found himself without a job. And Simi Valley Unified School District discovered a teacher candidate.

``It's a lot more fulfilling,'' said the 38-year-old Jezina, who began teaching algebra at Royal High this year.

Jezina, a former consultant for Accenture Ltd., a global company specializing in management consulting and technology services, was one of hundreds laid off two years when the company downsized.

He, along with 100 other mostly high-tech professionals, are in their first year of what has been a two-year initiative in Ventura County to recruit hard-to-find science, math and special education teachers.

Funded through a state grant, the Technology-to-Teaching Project Initiative aims to place laid-off midcareer workers or those seeking career changes into school classrooms.

``There has always been a shortage of science and math teachers. They are pulled into other industry based on higher wages,'' said Tom Nikrik, deputy director of business and employment for the county, which runs the project.

``Many dove into their career and missed those years of idealism,'' he said.

Years of layoffs and streamlining in the tech industries has brought them into teaching.

About 60 percent of those enrolled are between the ages of 40 and 59, many who have had a long-term interest in teaching but were caught up in fast-paced careers.

Billed as a win-win situation, the tech-to-teach program was created in 2001 by former Gov. Gray Davis and targeted laid-off workers in areas with a highly concentrated technology sector such as Silicon Valley. This year the county has received an $800,000 grant from the state.

``The biggest challenge is just dealing with the children,'' Jezina said. Sometimes, he said, he must compete with their own lack of interest, lunch time or even the anxiousness that overwhelms a 14-year-old at the end of the school day.

Teaching offers far more rewards than the profit margin, he said, and is less strenuous than the 15-hour days he used to put in.

``Watching the bottom lines is pretty exciting, but at the same time in a school environment you have a kid who absolutely doesn't get something and when they do there is a big smile on their face and they say, 'Is that all there is?' That is just as fulfilling,'' he said.

Jezina said he used to charge his clients hundreds of dollars an hour for his services. When asked how much of a pay cut he took to teach, he chuckles, ``I am not doing this for the money.''

Still, he said, he struggles to adapt to the lack of resources.

``There's a lack of adequate equipment. The current overhead projector is 10 years old. The kids can't read a plus or minus sign,'' said Jezina, who has developed an elaborate Power Point algebra lesson for his students.

``It's frustrating. They get confused. Having a brand-new projector would really help.''

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Zorko Jezina

First-year teacher