A Brief Biography

Adam Kempler has been employed in education since 1986 when he began working his way through college by tutoring severely handicapped students, counseling teenagers, and coaching volleyball players at Fountain Valley High School. Upon graduation from CSU Long Beach with a B.A. in English, a minor in psychology, and a teaching credential, he student-taught English and psychology at Fountain Valley High School before becoming an English teacher at Laguna Hills High School. Adam compares teaching high school students to being a wild animal tamer; it's exciting, but the animals like raw meat! As a result, Adam went back to school to earn a M.A., again, at CSU Long Beach, in English to prepare to teach at the college level.

While earning his M.A., he taught reading classes for the Institute of Reading Development and English as a Second Language classes for LCP International. Upon completing his M.A., Adam worked for three years as an adjunct English instructor at Orange Coast College and several other colleges in Orange County before beginning to teach full time at College of the Canyons (COC) in 1997.  For a time, he served as the chair of the English Department, and his favorite classes to teach are poetry, children’s literature, and introductory English.  Also, for six years, he taught an introductory college class for COC in a local juvenile detention facility. 

Adam has been taking scouting groups surfing, fishing, and backpacking and teaching these skills since 1986.  He completed additional post-graduate coursework in kinesiology at CSUN, outdoor leadership training, and Red Cross certification, and has been teaching physical education and recreation courses at COC since 2005. 

Adam and Jennifer have six children: Jesse, Stephen, Rachel, Rebekah, Timothy, and Ruth. Adam enjoys spending his free time with his family; additional interests of his include camping, surfing, reading, writing, playing the guitar, serving at church, and taking pictures.