Mikala Westbrook

Tell us why you became a teacher

I became a teacher by accident actually. Sure I played school when I was a kid- but as a kid I disliked school- so much I graduated early. Well I was in the management world and got laid off due to the company going bankrupt and I took a part time job teaching for Girl's Inc. I LOVED it! After some thought I figured since the girls loved my lessons and I enjoyed it that maybe I could make learning fun and be better than the teachers I had. It was that decision that changed lives.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I taught 4th grade for a Title 1 school and I had what we called the "heavy hitters" the tough group of kids. One day we had a visiting student (for negative behavior) and she began to pick on one of my students. The student picked on was always picked on in my class too. What happened was really cool- my students became upstanders and it resulted in the student apologizing and asking to hang out with us for a while to learn the content! I was so proud of all of them!

What would you do with the $25,000?

I run a non-profit that exists to help early childhood learners and their families have resources to build home libraries and have access to tutoring for free that they could otherwise not afford- so the money would be used to support those efforts. We have four literacy events this year that will allow us to provide books to add to or build home libraries in our community. I could also add 5 more students to our tutoring roster for an entire year! This is how I would use the money.