I have felt so privileged to call the Wenatchee valley home for most of my life. My parents homeschooled my siblings and I until we started the Running Start Program at Wenatchee Valley College—and we loved it! The first time I considered the idea of entering the education field was while working as a tutor at WVC. I found that the art of taking complicated ideas and explaining and breaking them down so that a struggling student could understand them felt like an exciting challenge. Since I loved complex math as well, I thought I would major in Applied Mathematics and teach calculus. However, I decided to take a year off to do mission work and that year quickly became more than two, beginning with a three month mission training program in Belize and then two years living in the remote jungle of Peru. I loved village life and learned so much from the people there. During this experience, my goals and dreams started changing, driven by a love for the people I worked with and a sense of my own inadequacy to meet their needs. I returned home eager to pursue a degree in psychology or education. While I studied my BS in Psychology through Washington State University, I began working in the local public school district providing reading interventions to below grade-level readers. No sooner had I graduated, then I accepted an opportunity to help start a training school in Bangladesh where I taught and worked in administration for the next two years. The following year, I had the opportunity to re-combine my love for math with my passion for education when the need arose for a math and physical education teacher at an Adventist boarding school in northern Bolivia. Each experience taught me to appreciate the role of education in training young people to learn not just how to meet certain standards and requirements but also to actively analyze information and choose the way they think. Returning to the US, I have spent the past year and a half working primarily in the special education departments of the Cashmere School District as a substitute paraeducator until beginning my position as the 3rd grade teacher here at CCA. Every day I am inspired by the children I work with and it is my aim to help each one of them learn, grow, and always know that they are infinitely valuable and loved.