Tell us why you became a teacher

I initially became a teacher after becoming a single parent and wanting to have a schedule that allowed me to balance a work life balance. But the more I got into it, the more I saw how fulfilling it is. Sometimes the daily grind makes me want to pull my hair out, but when so many young people say that my belief and support in them made a difference, I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I worked for several years as a teacher for the Vermont Department of Corrections. I had a group of students who needed a science credit, so we worked to study physics by creating a Rube Goldberg Machine. Students studied different kinds of energy and applied that element in the machine. Seeing a group of 12 people who were incarcerated, working positively together on a shared goal helped reshape the perception of these young men, not just for myself, but everyone in the community.

What would you do with the $25,000?

After weeping for joy, I desperately want to take the masters class from the Breadloaf School of English that I missed because of Covid. Breadloaf holds classes at Oxford University, and the class I wanted to take is called Page to Stage, which asks you to read plays and then compare the stage production. I saved thousands to take this class, but it was obviously canceled and circumstance made it hard to try again to take it.