Sure, there are lots of teachers at West Chicago Community High School who are in their second or even third career. There are outdoor enthusiasts, avid travelers, and those who have come from countries over 4500 miles away. But there is only one man who vied for a place on popular reality show “Survivor”: Marc Wolfe.

A self-professed reality TV guy, he is “kind of a huge fan of ‘Survivor‘ and ‘Amazing Race‘. [Being on the show,] that was a big goal for me…kinda given up on that now,” said Marc, who submitted a video application to CBS, but was not chosen to appear on the show.

Nonetheless, Marc is no stranger to media. He also interned at a radio station Chicago’s WTMX (The Mix), which led him to want a moment in the spotlight, either as a reality-TV participant or an athlete/coach. While in college, he spent a semester working at the station, believing he might want to get into media.

While he may not be a reality star in the traditional sense, he is a frequent feature in WEGO’s “Friday Funday” video clips and his dreams of becoming a coach have manifested as well; he coaches his own children’s sports. Marc is a parent of two boys: a high school freshman and a fifth-grader.

The desire to coach may have arisen from Marc’s early competitive nature: he played football, baseball, and soccer with his two brothers as a younger kid, but then when he got to high school, he focused more on football. 

“Both my wife and I are huge Iowa Hawkeye football fans, so whenever they have a big win, I’ve rushed the field multiple times at Kinnick Stadium,” said Marc.

His competitive spirit can be seen in other areas of life, which may surprise some who think of him as the easygoing Activity Director and Career and Technical Education department chair at West Chicago Community High School.

Another surprise?

“Marc is an excellent cook. He makes dinner every night for his family, always trying out new recipes. His specialties are soy-glazed salmon, chicken orzo soup, and beef stroganoff,” said Shea Wolfe, Marc’s wife. 

“I met my wife at the very end of college. We both went to Iowa, dated for four years, and then got married and here we are,” said Marc.

Prior to working at WEGO, Marc was employed at Plainfield Central High School. Even before then, he attended the University of Iowa for college, majoring in education. His chosen area of study could be seen a mile away, as he came from a line of teachers, from his grandparents down to his cousins. His dad was an administrator at the local middle school near where Marc grew up, in Morris, IL. 

That said, at one point, Marc changed his major to communications and business, and when he wanted to switch it back to education, the timing was so close to graduation that he asked, “Why change back?”

After 9/11, Marc was in his last semester of college and the economy was down so few places were hiring. Marc took a job in sales, but did not like the position, and so, six months after graduating college, he went back to school to get his master’s in education and has worked in the field ever since.

Coworkers would describe Marc as “an amazing guy.”

“He listens to what you need to say, listens to any ideas, if you have a creative idea for anything in the school, he’ll listen to you,” said administrative assistant Viviana Cuautle.

And while his days of eating rats on a beach and searching for the immunity idol are well behind him, Marc “is the calm in any storm. He’s patient, kind, and optimistic – he sees the good in any situation and truly believes that everything will always work out in the end,” said Shea.