Tell us why you became a teacher

I am a lifelong learner. A geek if you may. I am the one who reads the Tips app on your iPhone. So when chance came up to turn my love of learning into an actual job, I jumped. Having no direct experience of teaching outside of working for Apple Retail as a Creative (teaching people how to use their devices and running workshops) as well as running an iPhone/iPad class at my towns Senior Center, the Indeed alert popped up at the right time. I was going to be a teacher.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

So many to choose from. The one that stands out is when I was teaching my graphic design 1 students about typography, kerning and tracking (spacing between letters). It's not an easy concept to teach. But one day, a student came in and said "Ms. Mahoney, we received an award last night (sports related) and the kerning on it was AWFUL! They noticed that, my heart swelled. I think the next would be having many of my students decide to go to college for graphic design because of my class.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I know this sounds crazy but my son who is 30, withdrew from college after his freshman year with a 3.97GPA due to my divorce and knowing the financial burden it would have on me trying to send him and my daughter (27) at the same time. She is now a teacher, but he has struggled to find a job without a degree. I would like for him to use the money go back for Radiology which he would do if he could afford it. He is married with a 2 month old and that makes it hard.