Michelle Rutherford

Tell us why you became a teacher

When I graduated from college I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my degree. I joined the Peace Corps and then hurt my back. They wouldn’t take me, but I thought if I was willing to go teach kids in a foreign country, maybe I should just teach kids here in the US. At that point, I saved my money and enrolled in a graduate program to teach high schools science. I taught middle school my first few years and I was hooked. I haven’t looked back and have enjoyed classroom teaching since 1995.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

After about ten years of teaching Advanced Placement Chemistry, I had a particularly motivated student who had no idea how much talent she had. She took my honors chemistry class, then my AP chemistry class and then was a peer tutor for me. We kept in touch throughout her college career and then her graduate education. Today she’s working in biomedical engineering and tells me I am the entire reason for her interest in science. That, in itself, is enough to make a career.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Science education in Nevada is not a well funded endeavor. In fact, we are in the bottom quartile for per pupil expenditures. Since I’ve worked at my current high school, 11 years, I have not had access to any professional curricular materials. Not a text book, activity, or lab experiment that I have not developed or been given by colleagues. Our children deserve better. Although I built a successful AP chemistry program, I believe the students at our 1800 student school deserve CBM technology.