Tell us why you became a teacher

In my senior year of college, I read a line in a book that stated, "The only persons who ever changed history are those who changed the way that people think about themselves." From that moment forward, I knew what I wanted to do... I recalled all the teachers who inspired me to love school and learning and I wanted to become THEM. I wanted to CHANGE the way kids saw school, CHANGE the way they saw teachers, and ultimately CHANGE the way they saw themselves.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

For 15 years I have coordinated our school student govt. elections. Students debate, campaign, and do a LOT of public speaking. One year, one of the most quiet and shy students that I ever had, decided to run for President. He was scared of speaking in public and he lacked a LOT of self confidence. I showed him videos of famous speeches, I told him about my own childhood stuttering problems, and he surprised everyone by giving an amazing closing speech- he WON and I was so proud of him.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I started a non profit 20 years ago that awards scholarships and provides financial assistance to promising young scholars with financial need. They are identified in 5th grade and we follow their life until they graduate from high school. They receive birthday gifts, Christmas gifts for all the children in their family, GPA cash bonuses, and a renewable scholarship so they can buy school supplies every year. If I won, I would use some of the $25,000 to expand our program to more schools.