AU master's degree not only helps graduate with teaching career, but also as council member and now as mayor

Mason Boldizar earned his master’s degree in administration in 2007 from Ashland University to help his teaching career, but it has benefited him in many other ways, too.

It also has served him well as a Minerva council member since 2018 and he expects that to continue as the village’s mayor, which the council named him recently following the September death of Mayor Tim Tarbet.

“Learning how to deal with people in respectful ways is always something that we can learn more about,” said Boldizar, who has lived in Minerva his whole life except when he went to Kent State for his bachelor’s degree in education.

In addition to learning how to deal with people respectively, Boldizar said he also loved the flexibility AU had when he was working on his master’s degree part time for about three years while teaching fifth-grade math and science in the Canton Local School District, which he has been doing for 25 years.

“Classes were set up so people who worked full time could still have a great experience,” said Boldizar, who added that he chose AU for a master’s because he had friends who went through the program at Ashland who told him it was rigorous, but they learned a lot.

Just as he learned a lot from AU, Boldizar said he gained a great deal of knowledge about being a mayor from Tarbet.

“He was great with people and listening to what the village needed,” Boldizar said about the former mayor. “I learned so much from him in the seven to eight years I was on council with him. We continue to do the work he started and hope to have some type of memorial in Village Hall and in the community very soon.”

Before he was on council, Boldizar said he also admired the work of the late Jim Waller, the mayor before Tarbet, and has appreciated the support he has received from home, school and the village since taking over the mayor duties from Tarbet.

Minerva has a population of a little more than 3,000 people and is located primarily in Stark and Carroll counties with a small part of it also in Columbiana County in eastern Ohio. Being mayor in Minerva is part-time position that Boldizar is handling with a full-time job attitude because of his love of the community.

“When I think of Minerva, I think about the people,” Boldizar said. “Each community has qualities that I feel stand out and Minerva is no different. People from Minerva have such pride in our town. We have so many things to offer and we keep finding new ways to make our village better.”

Being the mayor gives Boldizar the opportunity to solve problems, which he has always enjoyed being a math and science teacher.

“I have challenges every day,” Boldizar said about teaching, “but what it comes down to is, do you like the kids? That answer is yes for me. Each day, something comes up that makes me shake my head and something that makes me laugh. I enjoy the challenge of finding ways to reach students and helping them grow.”

Balancing teaching with his new duties as mayor has been difficult, Boldizar admits. But he said he looks forward to this newest challenge.

“Most days I go straight from school to the office at Village Hall,” he said. “My wife has been very supportive because she knows how much it means to me to continue the work that Mayor Waller and Mayor Tarbet started.

“Just in the last week, I have put in 25 hours,” he added about his schedule in late October. “I have a meeting almost every day and some training is coming up. Much of the work is very interesting and I am getting the opportunity to grow and learn each day.”