Sto-Rox graduate, Air Force veteran making difference in hometown as school board president

STOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man making a difference in his hometown.

From nearly dropping out of high school to becoming school board president, Sto-Rox’s Cameron Culliver has quite a story to tell.

Culliver is an inspiration.

Back when he considered dropping out, the people in his life pushed him to get his diploma.

Culliver ran with it to the Air Force, the Space Force and now back in his hometown inspiring young people and young student-athletes.

The then-Sto-Rox senior was ready to move on with his life and put school behind him.

“I wanted to drop out of high school. After football after drumline. I had a job already. I said school is not for me,” Culliver recalled.

Instead, his mentors, who saw the teenager’s potential weren’t going to let him fail.

“They saw something in me that I just kind of didn’t see in myself, I guess you can say at the time, and they pushed me pushed me pushed me,” he said.

Culliver went on to graduate from Sto-Rox High School in 2008. In August 2011 he joined the Air Force.

“You realize that the world is bigger than your environment,” he said.

That moment stuck and was one that helped Culliver realize his purpose in life.

“My experience through the military and my experience, you know, over time, different countries, different cultures, it brought me back home and brought me back to where my goal in life was always make a difference,” Culliver said.

The veteran returned to McKees Rocks in 2019 when his mom got sick.

That following July, he joined the Sto-Rox school board, once again, because of a push from his mentors.

Less than a year and a half later, he was named school board president.

“I earned three degrees while being in the Air Force, you know, for free. So why not be able to, you know, use my degree and why not be able to, you know, show folks that, ‘Hey, you can do this too,’” Culliver said.

That’s a message he’s instilling in the next generation in his hometown not only through his impact on the district – but as the head of the Sto-Rox Little Vikings youth sports program.

Just this past December, two Little Vikings youth football teams competed in a national tournament in Florida.

And much like his mentors made such an impact on him – Culliver is doing all he can to let the youth in his community know they have someone they can lean on.

Culliver got three degrees and learned several languages while in the Air Force.

And then in 2021, the service chose him to be a program manager for the new U.S. Space Force.

He’s one of just 24 recruiters nationwide.

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