Tell us why you became a teacher

I had an amazing science teacher all through high school at our tiny school and he made it so fun and so interesting. I realized I had a love for science and wanted to help share it to a younger group. I especially love sharing my love of science to those with a natural curiosity for science. My older brother is a wildlife biologist and we hike and hunt and fish together and he shows and teaches me so much about the outdoors that I can spread his love of nature, ecology, and conservation too.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

When I got my first teaching job 3 years ago, we did not even have a Knowledge Bowl team where the high achieving students compete with other teams from schools around the county. I started a group at our school that first year, and now this year we had too many kids sign up so we have a waitlist. Our varsity team was the only team to win any achievements this year for our school, even over all our sports teams. We went all the way to districts and just missed making it to nationals this year!

What would you do with the $25,000?

Our entire school is K-12 and we have 105 students. We are severely underfunded and understaffed. This amount of money would give us so many opportunities. With that amount we could benefit every single student. I would love to split it up between the 13 classrooms we have and use it as a reward, and let every classroom pick a field trip so we can get our kids out of the tiny town they are in.