It all started when I was 5 years old. While most kids were having tea parties with their stuffed animals, I was playing teacher.

I'd help my penguin read, my seal needed help counting, and my cheetah wanted to learn how to spell. 

When I was six years old in my moms classroom when all her students had gone home for summer break...

I sat in her spinning chair overlooking the whole room. My brother was sitting in a desk near hers and I handed him a pretend homework sheet. 

I loved the idea of teaching my younger brother new things.

That summer I watched out the window while family friends taught swim lessons in my backyard. 

As soon as they left I would jump in the pool and pretend to give my own lessons to kids.

When I was 12 I begged my mom to let me get CPR certified so I could teach lessons, and she finally said I was old enough. 

I went on to do this for the next 7 summers! I loved watching the excitement when my students finally learned how to do it on their own.

By sixteen, I started babysitting.

I'd pick kids up from school, we'd go to the park, we'd do homework, and I'd make them snacks.

I loved being a role model these kids could learn from and look up to.

My Sophomore year of high school a lot of my extra curricular were based around special education. I was a peer leader and Vice President of Circle of Friends. We put on events like the Special Olympics, Baler Buckaroo, Unified Prom, and Inclusion Nights.

When I graduated I spent my summer as an Instructional Aid and that sparked my passion even more in education. 

I came to Chico fall of 2023, with a plan to become a Speech Language Pathologist. 

Classes were HARD, and I couldn't stay focused. I just wanted to be done with school. I wanted my career, and I wanted to be working in a school. 

After shadowing several SLPs and making a lot of hard choices, I switched my major but still felt stuck on where to go next...