“My mom always busted her butt,” he remembers. “Everything was always very structured within the house.”

That attraction toward order and responsibility was solidified when he first attended boot camp—after which it “became almost OCD,” he says—and has since compelled him to keep an almost inhuman schedule. Over any given seven-day span, the recently engaged TA and Marine Staff Sergeant goes to work at Suffolk County’s Centereach High School, takes continuing education courses at SUNY Old Westbury (where he received his undergrad degree in childhood education) and, on weekends, reports to his reserve base in Newburgh, NY, where he’s an aviation supply clerk and martial-arts instructor.

“If I’m not occupied 24-7, then I lose my mind,” Giampietro admits. “I have to keep going, I have to keep moving. One day off is nice, but two, I lose my mind.”

It could be tough to compartmentalize all those different roles, but the hours Giampietro spends with high school teens has an influential effect on his duties as Staff Sergeant, and vice versa, so it all “meshes real well,” as he puts it.

“You would never imagine it, but the Marine Corps has totally influenced and prepared me for teaching in so many different ways,” he continues. “In the military, we do something called tech training, where I might have to go to another [aviation] shop and teach them what I do, so in case I leave, they know what to do. To set up a tech-training class, it’s prepared like a lesson plan. They’re almost identical, so it was perfect when doing that transition. And what I do now in the high school is I work in what’s called pass room. It’s in-school suspension, so I supposedly have all the bad kids in my room. All the kids know I’m a Marine, and I just use what I learned from that as far as leadership and discipline, and since I’ve been there, they’ve told me [the number of students in pass room] has been reduced by 400 percent.”

Far as how to stay out of trouble and accomplish one’s own goals—even if they don’t necessitate 17 hour days—Giampietro implores any young person to remember there is no ceiling for their success. “The kids in my classroom, I always ask them what their plans are,” he says. “A lot of them say the Marine Corps, and I go, ‘No, no, that was for me. That’s not for you. You’re going to school.’ Don’t be discouraged by the market and what people tell you. Just keep moving, do it for yourself, get that degree under your belt and get that feeling of satisfaction, because it’s a big step. Just keep doing it—push your limits.”