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Someone once said, "Making a difference is the highest form of art." I strive to live this motto in everything I do. In my roles at Penn High School where I've taught for ten years, this means creating excellence and motivating others to do the same while directing the musical, coaching other teachers, helping students communicate more effectively (and earn college credit at the same time!) and leading the Early College Academy. While being an educator wasn’t my original desire when attending Taylor, it has truly become one of the greatest joys of my life! Another joy is mothering my four children with my husband of 23 years, Karl. One of the biggest surprises of my adult life? Cofounding the nonprofit Awake & Alive in 2011. Through this organization Bright Future Academy was born in 2012 and now, a decade later, this kindergarten has served several hundred children and their families, growing into an involved after school (complete with food, medical care, and additional supports), as well as a sustainability project with some of the mamas of children in the program. My life truly is an example of the goodness of God and His desire to do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine, if we’re only open to the possibilities!
When I came to Taylor in 1995, I thought I wanted to be an anchorwoman and enrolled in the Mass Communication program; but as I learned about the parts of a radio or thought about what this would mean for a future family and career, I realized it wasn't quite right. Around that same time, I became close with now-deceased Dr. Ollie Hubbard and Dr. Jan Pletcher, both communications professors, and I realized that I could combine my love for the arts and people by switching to the Communication Arts Educator degree and become a teacher! This proved to be one of the best decisions I've made! Becoming a Communications Educator has helped me make a difference in ways I wouldn't have been able to in another profession. It has allowed me to connect with teens and their families both here and abroad (I have led several teams over to Ethiopia through our nonprofit and even did a project-based learning experience involving both the teens in my classrooms and the teens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia painting murals for each other). I have become a better leader whether it's through my role as an instructional coach or Academy Leader at our high school. I have even had the opportunity to act semi-professionally—a passion of mine that I swore was dead after leaving college. My experience at Taylor helped lay the groundwork for these experiences and more!
Developing relationships with different professors in the English (my minor) and Communications departments were invaluable. So many profs modeled the excellence and care that I now adopt in my own classrooms. I also loved being involved in the study abroad program my sophomore year at Taylor where I went to Daystar University in Kenya, Africa for 4.5 months. I have no doubt that experience greatly influenced both our decision to adopt from Ethiopia (a neighboring country) a decade later but also begin our nonprofit and encourage my own children as well as my hundreds of "Early College children" to take part in their own study abroad programs when they go to college.
The liberal arts education creates well rounded adults and the Taylor vision of service helps those well-educated, well-rounded adults want to have hearts and hands ready to serve. A communications degree is so versatile and has allowed me to do so many of the things I wanted to do—even if those things looked differently than what I would have imagined. Even the fact that I was able to take a step back from full-time teaching for twelve years and still work part-time (whether as an actress, an editor, elementary school tutor, curriculum planner and teacher at a Christian alternative school) is possible because of my Taylor communication education degree.
If you're open to possibilities and deviations from your own "plan," the world is at your fingertips—especially when you're listening for the Holy Spirit's leading!
