Tell us why you became a teacher

As the youngest living child of eight, education became a pathway to the world! Poverty, partial deafness, generational cycles, trauma...the challenges of life--these became stair steps, as learning rises above all of this and invites every learner to reach. Opening a book took me to other places and showed me that the world is not about limitations, that learning is really about the power of yet. The art of learning is in the process, in the way of knowing, and teaching is guiding that process.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

Over the past 30 years I have taught, the most memorable moments are like the stars in the sky. Every one of these 7,943 students have taught me to never forget that they are humans, capable of happiness, sorrow, experiencing comedies/tragedies of life. They need to be seen as capable, and giving the tools to succeed. No matter the content I teach, I want to empower their journey. Life is hard, be kinder so they can becoming every profession--as lifelong learners going beyond 'hard' to shine.

What would you do with the $25,000?

First, give it to every one of my teachers, who dropped pebbles of knowledge into me, who saw me as more than my environment, more than the dirty kid, but rather a human who just wanted to know the way down the path. Over the years, I have been blessed to keep in touch with many of them, just as so many of my students do with me now. A dinner with those teachers to remind them they mattered. Second, I would pay medical debt from my medical journey. Give my own children the world as we travel.