Pete Muir just entered his teen years.

Although he is now in his 13th year teaching, Muir never originally planned to go into it as a profession.

“Even when I started teaching, it was to fill in time on almost part-time basis while I wanted to pursue music,” Muir said. “I got some regular cash while at night I could pursue my passion.”

Back in 1996, Muir returned to his hometown in Australia and began working at his alma mater, Queensland University of Technology. About three or four weeks into teaching, Muir realized the work was not going to be part-time.

“The epiphany moment for me was when I was walking down the middle of a street in city of Brisbane,” a city of about two million people, Muir said. In the middle of a busy street full of people, Muir saw two girls that he did not recognize but had in a workshop at the university the day before.

Not realizing that he was behind them, the girls began talking about the workshop.

“She said, ‘That new guy, I didn’t understand the content until he explained it,’ just talking as you generally do,” Muir said. “I was like, ‘Hey they are talking about me. I made a difference in their learning.”

As a result, Muir starting thinking that God may be saying to go into teaching as a profession. After attaining his master’s degree and spending six years teaching, Muir came to the U.S. to teach.

Through connecting with a man at Grace Bible College in Wyoming, Mich., Muir was hired to teach and spent four years building the audio and video program at Grace.

Muir left Grace Bible College and started teaching at Cornerstone in spring 2006, after seeing the seniors at Grace through their final year.

His experience has pushed him to a new level of teaching.

“I am now at the stage of going beyond checking in and out of content.  That is very unsatisfying as a teacher, just delivering some content and nothing else,” Muir said. “Teaching is not a job for me, it is a career and I would go so far as to say a lifestyle.”

Senior Rick Cornfield has taken six classes with Muir.

“He is extremely relatable and really wants to get the most out of his classes,” Cornfield said. “Even when he is having a bad day, he always keeps everything positive.”

Muir’s passion has resulted in great success for Cornerstone. The media department has more than doubled the goals set for enrollment. Muir attributed this to the professors’ real-world experience.

“We are not career academics,” Muir said. “We are bringing practice into theory.”

Muir is working on his dissertation at Western Michigan University. It deals with the question: Why are the three media professors not teaching at a tech school?

“Why are we at a liberal arts college? We have students who can do film very well but can talk about other things,” Muir said. “As opposed to where my graduates [at a tech school] can push buttons really well and their shots are as good as anyone, but when the camera stops, they have nothing to talk about.”

When a student’s work is finished at school, Muir feels it is an uplifting experience for him as a professor.

“The highlight of my teaching career is every time at graduation day,” Muir said. “Sitting in at graduation ceremony, watching these students walk across the stage, knowing that they are going to slingshot past me.”

“The whole goal of teaching is to slingshot them past you,” Muir said. “To see their journey remembering where they came from. When they came as freshman in Video I, trying to learn their names. To the day they are walking across the stage and seeing the best student film I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot of student films.”

Following graduation, the next six months change the student-professor mentoring relationship to the level of a friendship.

“I have friends from Grace who are in fantasy football league,” Muir said. “They are telling me they have jobs in media in their churches. They are still asking me because I have more life experience.”

The highlight of Muir’s year is being able to work with Brad Porter, who graduated from Cornerstone last year with a degree in media.

“They are not relationships that stop on graduation day,” Muir said. “I am working with him as a colleague. And that is very rewarding.”