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From the beginning of life to the end, we are all always learning and teaching and

growing. Being a teacher wasn’t always my first option, but now I can’t think of a better one.

From the teachers who made an impact on me to my extracurriculars that helped me grow, the

journey has been long, and nowhere close to over.

EDUCATION

When I was growing up I went to a private pre-K, run from a large home on the nicer side

of town. After that I went to Kindergarten in Jerome County's public school system, and then

attended a private Christian school until fifth grade. From there, due to personal beliefs and

financial restrictions, I was homeschooled before attending Valley School District from the

eighth grade until I graduated class of 2018.

Valley School District.

Nestled in between two tiny towns and surrounded by farm fields, Valley School District

was a building that housed Kindergarten through Seniors, with three hallways and more focus on

sports than academics. My cousins all had gone there since first grade, and my parents had

decided it was our best option. But considering I had spent the past three to four years

homeschooled, and my parents were usually too busy working to force us to be social outside of

running errands or attending the mandatory tests, I had spent those years mostly alone with my

nose in a book. I remember going into the halls on my first day and absolutely hating it. These

halls were filled with loud, obnoxious and unfamiliar people. The classes were in different rooms

and I had to squeeze my way through people in order to get to my locker. These kids had grown

up with each other, I was an outsider who didn’t understand the rules of public school.

For the first several weeks I spent it by myself, eating lunch in the cafeteria with either

my cousin or whoever happened to be sitting nearby. After a while I fell into a group of girls,
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whose most outgoing member was a girl named Ally. She became one of my more close friends

until we fell apart for some unremembered reasons.

The rest of my highschool years went more or less the same. Stuck in a group where I

wasn’t sure where or with who I belonged, trying to survive less than ideal learning conditions

and high school and home drama. Our class more or less tolerated each other, and the teachers

more or less tolerated us.

By the time I graduated, my senior year had left me dead set against going on to college.

In the space of my senior year we had moved, my parents had switched jobs, my old band

teacher had quit, and my life was hurtling along at an anxiety inducing speed. I would tell adults

and family that I was taking a gap year, and had accidentally missed the application deadline, but

the truth was I hadn’t missed it and had simply decided I was not going back to school. I didn’t

want to go to school, I didn’t want to go to work, I didn’t want to do or be anything. Luckily for

me, as the spring semester started to approach, I decided that there was no way on this earth that

I was going to work in food service for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to work at any kind of

‘soul crushing job with stupid people’ anymore. So my parents said that they would pay for my

first semester of college (they didn’t) and that I should just try it out.

So I did. I applied and signed up for the very last SOAR event, the day before it. I took

four classes and at the end of the semester both college and random internet searches for fun jobs

abroad lead me to deciding what I wanted to do: teach English abroad. Now in my second

semester of college, I am majoring in elementary education.

Work

For most of high school, I worked mostly under the table or for my parents, small jobs on

the weekends. I worked cleaning the mechanic shop my parents worked at. Then I helped in the
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office when they ran their own business, and then after I graduated, I got my first real job. For a

year I worked at Pizza Pie Cafe, where I struggled for quite a while. I didn’t know what I wanted

to do with my life at this point still, but I felt like I needed to stick with this job for a while,

which taught me to stick with things that weren’t the best and see the job through. When I started

up at school, I only had the job at Pizza Pie, and then when school ended I up working at the

hospital as well. I worked both jobs until the end of the summer, when I quit Pizza Pie to focus

on my studies, and also to begin my work study job.

I currently work three jobs, and for the most part, I really like them even if at times they

can be overwhelming. I work at the CSI Early Learning Center, St. Lukes, and as a CSI

Ambassador (AMB).

Service Work

In high school, the class I had the biggest love hate relationship with was band. The

program was really great, we had good music selections and we always had fun. But sometimes

the teacher had too many expectations and we had some ridiculous activities we had to do for a

grade. But the older I got the more I appreciated the class. We learned to work with each other,

and for a band that had members from grades 7th-12th, that was quite a feat. We learned to listen

and cooperate, and we were rather good. Our teacher was the type who actually cared, and we

always knew we had him on our side, willing to care and help us out. The class had a sense of

community, even when we were fighting, or our teacher was being annoying.

For the past six years, my parents have started and run a fundraiser to support various

charities around the valley, the Southern Idaho Truck Show. For the first five years we raised

about $32,800 for an organization called Camp Rainbow Gold, a no cost camp for kids and their

families affected by cancer. This last year we raised funds to cover the bills for one of the
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families who support us every year. Their son Cardon has Melas which is a mitochondrial

disease which affects the cells in his body. As it’s an incurable disease, we wanted to help their

family and thank them for supporting us year after year. At our last show, we had almost 50

trucks, impressive for a small family run show.

I also am an Ambassador for CSI, giving tours to prospective students. Our team is

different from the others like the Program Board or Senate, since we don’t work with current

students. In our tours we show students around campus, tell them about programs and events and

benefits to coming to our school. I really enjoy connecting with both my co-workers and my

fellow students as well as the people I give tours to. It really has taught me to take up more of a

leadership role, and boosted my skills as a leader. Before I began I was definitely more of a

follower but as I’ve worked as an AMB more and more, I’ve progressed as a leader, a skill that I

believe is vital for a teacher.

Why Teach

In my schooling, the teachers that were really impressionable to me were my band

teacher and my english teacher. My band teacher, as I said before, had a strong impact on what a

caring teacher looked like. He supported his students and pushed our band to be the best we

could be. My english teacher was a Canadian woman who was very outspoken about almost

everything, and in general a very inspirational teacher, and more than that a good person. These

two teachers were crucial to shaping who I am academically now. My band teacher taught us

how to work together and improve yourself and to listen. My english teacher taught me how to

work hard and pushed us all to higher standards. She was determined to have us leave high

school fully prepared for higher english classes.

While I was working after I graduated, I struggled with my ‘purpose’. I knew serving

pizza wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to be, what I wanted to

do. I did know, however, that I wanted to do something that makes a difference. I wanted to have

an impact on others and on myself. I didn’t want to do work I found meaningless or repetitive.

As I began to look harder at the education major, I realized that I could love teaching, and then

soon realized that I did love it. Students bring something new everyday, and teaching really

makes an impact on the world.

While working, I had a large amount of pressure from my parents to hurry up and try to

make decisions about what I wanted from life. So a rabbit hole search for interesting or fun jobs

lead me to a blogger who spoke about her time as an English as a Second Language teacher in

Spain. I discovered that as a native speaker if I got my bachelors degree I could teach English to

kids. This sounded like an excellent idea to someone who had always wanted to see what else the

world had. I also had always loved english classes, and wanted to be a writer, so I thought that an

English major would help me to teach. But as I went on, I decided that I also wanted to be an

Education major. I thought that with the end goal of ESL teaching, that knowing the ins and outs

of English, and knowing how to teach would allow me to be the best I could be for my students.

Working at the CSI Early Learning Center was a complete whim, I needed a work study,

and I thought working with children would be a good experience. I had worried that I had taken

too long to apply and there wouldn’t be any spots even if they wanted me, and there very nearly

weren’t. Luckily my new hospital manager turned out to be a manager at the ELC, and one short

conversation and interview later, I landed one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Throughout the past

few months, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best teachers and some of the

best students. The ELC is a part of a unique system of teaching, and I’ve seen how well it works
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and how much the students are taught and learn in such a positive manner. I’ve seen students go

from being shy and quiet to being loud and outspoken. They’ve grown significantly under the

guidance of these teachers, and I have as well.

Goals

Having goals is important, and especially as a student on their way towards a degree. My

goals for my own education are loose, but very ambitious. I have a lot I want to do and a few

limitations that hold me back, but I know one day at a time I will get there. I plan on leaving CSI

having both my Education and English degrees, then going to Idaho State University, where I

want to obtain my Bachelors in Education and my Masters in English. I also want to get a

certificate in ESL. I felt that in order to teach ESL, I needed to know how to teach and know

English grammar and such rather well; but now I have individual passion for both degrees. I also

want to study abroad, and experience more of the world while at ISU.

Professionally I want to teach elementary students, both abroad and here in the US, and if

I decide to get my PhD in English I’d like to teach in college. And personally, I hope to be well

traveled, with a memory and a friend in as many countries as I can. I want to have new

experiences and have a story to tell at the end of my life. I hope to write a novel and have it

published.

Life is one long journey and truly is what we make of it. I hope to accomplish my goals

and help students on their journey to achieve theirs. A teacher touches many lives, and I want to

do my very best to make a positive impact on my students.