Tell us why you became a teacher

School was difficult for me as a child. I had a teacher who wasn’t very understanding of my learning differences and I ended up being bullied by the figure I was meant to trust and learn from. I resolved to pursue the path of teaching to give future students a better experience than what I had. I wanted to become a teacher who actively made an effort to meet students where they were in their learning journeys.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

My most memorable teaching experience was designing and teaching a math lesson disguised as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for my students. I created characters, built a story, set up my classroom, and came up with interesting narration and sound design to really immerse the students in the lesson. My students had so much fun playing, and little did they know that they came out of the lesson with more mathematical knowledge than before!

What would you do with the $25,000?

I want to ensure that I am the best teacher I can be for my students, and as such I desperately want to pursue a master’s degree in education. I would use the funding to cover tuition fees and other expenses. Because I don’t anticipate my education to use up the entirety of the reward money, I would use the remainder of the money to purchase more classroom storage space for my students’ projects and belongings. The third priority for the money would be to give my students a fun field trip!