Mary Harper

Tell us why you became a teacher

I became a teacher because I enjoy helping people. When I was a little girl, I would come home from school and make all of the neighborhood kids sit down while I taught them what I had learned that day. One day when helping my niece with her math homework she told me that she wished her teacher explained things the way I do. In that moment I realized that I had a passion to teach math.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

My most memorable teaching experience happened several years after I started teaching. I was floating down the river that runs by my house with some friends. We had pulled up to the bank to take a little break. A young man of about 23 cam walking up to me and asked my name. He told me that he was a student who barely spoke English my first year of teaching. He told me how I had helped him understand the work and helped him feel like he belonged. He told me I changed his life.

What would you do with the $25,000?

If I won $25,000 I would pay off my car and use the rest of the money to to pay bills and for some much needed home improvements.