November 14^th kicks off American Education Week—a time to celebrate our educators and recognize the great things happening in public schools. With that being said, when was the last time that you thanked one of your teachers or professors?

In honor of American Education Week, I wanted to write a thank you to all of the educators that I have had over the years who have taken great measures to ensure my success and push me towards my passion. Not only have these people helped me to find my major of Secondary English Education, but they have also molded me into the person you see today.

To those educators that made me an English Ed major:

There are a handful of you that I owe a huge thank you to as you have done more than I could have ever asked for. I realize that some of you will never even see this, but for the ones that do, I’m sure you’ll know this is for you.

I spent many long days of sitting in the back of your classroom watching you day in and day out teach lesson after lesson to students, some willing and some reluctant to learn. The passion in your voice and your willingness to do whatever necessary to help your students learn is very admirable. This, along with your desire to cultivate some sort of connection with each and every one of your 160 students is what we need from our educators. You have gone out of your way to help me succeed even when I wasn’t even a student of yours. My senior year especially, you gave me a home. You proofread my assignments and helped me to better my writing ability. You gave me confidence and a friend. I feel that our bond strengthened over time as I went from being left down town on a field trip last year to drinking tea with you now. Thank you for everything that you have done for me; your kindness does not go unnoticed.

Now this professor definitely did more to help me than she’ll ever know. Being a high school senior in a room surrounded by college students can be scary. The fear of not being able to handle the coursework or lacking when it comes to having the right tools in your tool belt to succeed can be overwhelming. Hearing nothing but horror stories about this professor and how strict she was when it came to grading essays had me worried beyond belief. She takes off one point for every grammar error that she finds and I knew my essays were likely to contain several when the papers were 6-8 pages in length. The irony of this is that by the end of the semester, I had a 98% in the class and the lowest grade that I received on an essay was a 92%. My test scores on the midterm and final were unbelievable as I earned a 100% and 96% respectively. I had outdone what I thought I was capable of achieving and ending up having the highest grade in the class and only one of four A’ and I wasn’t even in college. Between the reassurance from my performance in this class and the support from my professor whenever I would ask her questions during her office hours, I knew that English was for me.

Of course there have been many more educators that have guided me towards my passion, these two stick out in my mind as being the most influential. Two German teachers, a Holocaust history professor, a child development teacher, many English teachers and professors, a middle school reading teacher and a middle school English teacher, a second and third grade teacher, a librarian, and even a geometry teacher have really pushed me in this direction that I am going right now. Without the support of everyone who has encouraged and helped me along the way, I wouldn't be here as a sophomore in the Secondary English Ed program at Clarion. I am very thankful for the unfaltering dedication that certain individuals have put forth to help me succeed. I can't even begin to thank you enough.