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Don Ellsworth used to spend quiet days hunched over a desk, crunching numbers for a public accounting firm.

Now, Señor Ellsworth stands in front of a classroom, reminding boisterous students to pay attention.

“Silencio, por favor.”

Judging from looks — hair-challenged and blue-eyed — and background — he’s Mormon — alone, Ellsworth, 40, is not what you might expect in a Spanish teacher.
In fact, Ellsworth spent five years as an accountant before switching careers.

Still, his impeccable Spanish and spot-on sense of humor have made him a favorite with peers and students at Bakersfield High School.

“He has great rapport with the students, but also has high expectations,” said BHS Principal David Reese. “He has a great heart, loves the high school experience and is a great role model for students.”

Although Ellsworth is now in his eighth year of teaching, it wasn’t initially a field that appealed to him.

One of six kids whose parents were both educators, Ellsworth recalls the family struggling to make ends meet.

“I was very anti-teaching,” he said.

Ellsworth took two years of Spanish in high school, but, admittedly, didn’t excel in the subject.

At Brigham Young University, he started out as a math major then switched to accounting, eventually moving back to California and finishing his degree at Fresno State.

At 19, Ellsworth, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was responsible for paying his way for his two-year mission trip to Colombia. Missionaries can’t go home, and can call home only twice a year — on Christmas Day and Mother’s Day.

“I really loved it,” Ellsworth said of his experience in Colombia. “The people were amazing. In America, we have so much handed to us. It was really a wake-up call to how other people live.”

Ellsworth said despite what they lacked financially, the Colombian people, especially the children, were still happy, often substituting socks for balls in soccer games.

Language-wise, however, Ellsworth said the first two months in Colombia were “horrible.”

“The people talked so fast, we would have to keep asking them to slow down. The hardest part was the accent,” he said.

Still, Ellsworth persevered, and after six months, even began to think in Spanish.

“You know you’ve got it down when your parents speak Spanish in your dreams,” he said, chuckling.

After returning from missionary service in Colombia, Ellsworth took an exam to test out of the lower level Spanish classes, moving on to some upper level literature and grammar classes. 

He graduated with a degree in accounting and became an accountant. But Ellsworth, then the father of small children, wanted to look for something with a more predictable work schedule. 

He didn’t consider teaching at first because of the large pay cut he would have to take. But after doing some serious budgeting, he and wife Alicia figured out a way to make it work and decided to make the change.

Reese had been Ellsworth’s basketball coach at Foothill High School, and said although Ellsworth wasn’t a “superstar” basketball player, he was very smart and had a tremendous work ethic.

“He understood where everyone should be, and was like a coach on the floor,” said Reese. “I knew that he had potential to teach later in life.”

Reese lost touch with Ellsworth after graduation, but after he became principal of BHS, a friend who had previously been a CPA with Ellsworth told Reese his former basketball player wanted to teach.

Ellsworth assumed he would teach math, but discovered that although he was short a couple of units to get an emergency credential in math, he had plenty of units in Spanish to qualify for an emergency credential. As fate would have it, BHS was in need of two Spanish teachers, so Ellsworth was hired to teach Spanish.

Ellsworth went on to Cal State Bakersfield to get his credential, taking Spanish classes to receive his “major-equivalent” in the subject.

“I helped him through the transition, and he’s been here ever since,” said Reese.

Today, Ellsworth’s oldest daughter, Jessica, is a sophomore at BHS, and his wife is the piano accompanist for the choir program. He also coaches the JV golf team.

Ellsworth’s first priority of the school year is classroom management, and earning students’ respect.

Then the fun — and learning — begins.

In addition to vocabulary and grammar exercises,  classes include games like Bingo and Battleship — plus plenty of “Nacho Libre” references. Or it’s making “Me gusta” — “amigos” — and “No me gusta” — “la musica del campo” — posters.

“Anything to trick them into learning,” said Ellsworth, who added his favorite aspect of teaching is that moment of realization when a student “gets it.”

“It’s fun to watch them make the connection from what they already know to what they are trying to learn,” he said.