Tell us why you became a teacher

While I was in college, I started coaching a local debate team. When I realized I didn't love calculus as much as I loved physics. My experience coaching clued me in to what my life's work should be.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

When you've been teaching as long as I have, it can't be reduced to just one; Your first graduating class, your first ex student wedding, your first student funeral, the first time you take a group of city-kid alums on an amazing wilderness hike, walking into the doctors' office where your student is now your doctor. These moments come every single day in so many ways you literally cannot catalog them fast enough.

What would you do with the $25,000?

First, get out of debt. Anyone who knows a teacher knows those tissues the sick kids are blowing their noses in weren't bought by the school. Second, take a trip that for once in my life that would make me get my first passport. Third, help take my debate team to a national tournament.