Woodland Regional High School has the pleasure of welcoming Klajd Drogu to our Hawk’s Nest in the 2021-2022 school year. Drogu is so much more than the Woodland’s new Italian and math lab teacher, he has lived an exceptional life that differs from many people.
“I was born in Albania and grew up playing outside with friends in my neighborhood,” he stated.
“We did not have any electronics, but we did have one soccer ball that we used to play various soccer and futsal games. I didn’t even see my first computer until I was in high school.”
After high school, Drogu decided that he would go to college in Italy and attend the University of Florence under the medicine branch.
“I had to take many difficult medical exams during my time at the University,” he recalls. While attending the university Drogu also received his masters in sports and worked at a catering company; however, he was very ambitious to broaden his horizons even more.
“After I graduated from college, my sister and I opened up a pizza shop in Basilicata, located in Southern Italy,” he said.
Nine years ago Drogu moved to America in hopes of finding better opportunities for himself and for his wife who is an art teacher. He went back to school and attended Naugatuck Valley to earn his degree as a physical therapist assistant.
He then proceeded to contact the ARC program in Hartford so he could change his career to teaching. During the lockdown, Drogu used his time at home to take tests that would earn him a teaching degree. This gave him dual certification to now be both a math and Italian teacher.
Finding great success in his new endeavors, Drogu still reflects on his past and reminisces about the good times.
“I haven’t been back to Albania in about twelve years and I miss my friends and playing soccer,” he stated.
While most people struggle to learn just two languages, Drogu is fluent in three. Through spending time in three different countries he found that the hardest language to learn was English.
“It wasn’t so much the language on paper, but having to actually speak English and live the language 24/7 was a challenge,” Drogu admitted.
Drogu hopes that he can help his students with the same issue by teaching them how to feel comfortable speaking the language.
Over time Drogu has found that all of his jobs have come together to help him in different aspects. Being a physical therapist assistant has helped him to transition into teaching because he went from educating people how to walk and stretch, to educating his students on how to grasp and enjoy new material.
“Above all I have found that education is crucial to creating relationships and it is so important to have a goal.”
Simply, Drogu’s objective for this year is to help every student reach their greatest potential and better themselves as learners. Using his extraordinary and extensive life experiences, Drogu will guide his students to try new things and learn as much as they can in their time at Woodland.
