Erica Saum

I originally became a teacher because I wanted to mentor high school aged girls who struggled emotionally and needed support that they weren’t getting at home. The icing on the cake was getting to teach my favorite subject—English Composition. The academic growth they achieved was so inspiring, but still hearing from them years later to tell me that I helped them through hard times, was special. I wanted each of my students to know that their voice, name, and identity mattered.

Last year, I had two students join my class who came from a homeschool background, but had major gaps in skills and knowledge. I invested in them socio-emotionally to help them get connected to our school community to find belonging. I also invested so much into pulling them to grade level. Their initial screeners showed 5-6% proficiency in ELA subjects. At the end of the year, they showed 27-30%. They are now happy and fierce in their pursuit of knowledge and know that they matter.

$25,000 would change my life. I would use it to get on a good path financially and to help fund my next Master's--Master of Education in Neuroscience and Trauma. My goal for the rest of my career is to help shape school culture to be trauma-informed/responsive for both students AND teachers alike. I believe we can reshape schools to be safe communities and it is my mission to help train teachers and other school stakeholders in trauma-informed care to protect, mitigate, and help heal trauma.