Alise Bowles

Tell us why you became a teacher

I had an elementary school teacher love me through my anxiety and perfection. She believed that I could learn to combat them myself and helped me what organization strategies. I also had a teacher in high school teach me the importance of having confidence in myself and not caring what others said or thought of me. If I had a dream and a path, there would be nothing I couldn’t do.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I had a student that had a promising baseball career that got seriously injured by a bus in the parking lot that put him in the hospital for months. Watching him over come the odds to catch up with the help of all his teachers, I was able to push his wheelchair at graduation and help him walk across the stage to receive his diploma.

What would you do with the $25,000?

My husband lost his job 2 years ago and I have a son with club hand and short arm. I would use the money to help pay some debts off that we have accumulated. I would use it to get my son back to his occupational therapist for a check in and we would finally take that trip to Disneyland as a family that my daughter and son have been talking about. There also would be a portion that would be donated to charity to help someone else that has a child with similar conditions as my son.