Some callings arrive quietly. Mine came in fourth grade.

One holiday, my grandfather asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. A teacher, I told him. I'd just spent two years in classrooms that felt like adventures — leaf journals, overnight trips to Gettysburg, read-alouds that I didn't want to end. Books have always been part of my life, from afternoon trips to the Bookmobile with my dad to hiding under the covers with a flashlight because there was always just one more chapter. I knew, even then, that something important was happening in those rooms.

I forgot for a while. High school brought other interests and other plans. I enrolled in college pursuing a different path entirely, until a conversation on a mission trip to Honduras changed everything. Someone I deeply respected told me plainly: you need to be a teacher. I scrapped my plans, changed my major, and never looked back. Wild, but true.

What followed was a road I didn't foresee traveling. I fell in love with literature and language, picking up Spanish informally at first, then in classrooms, then through ten trips to Honduras that deepened both my fluency and my love for cross-cultural connection. I earned my English teaching license, then a Master's in Teaching and Learning with a focus on curriculum development. Along the way I discovered something unexpected: I wasn't just drawn to stories. I was drawn to the systems beneath them: how the brain learns, how classrooms can be designed so students genuinely flourish, how strong roots produce the conditions for real growth.

For more than a decade I've taught Secondary Language Arts and Spanish. I currently teach dual-enrollment English in partnership with Mount Aloysius College, holding students to university standards while making rigorous content genuinely accessible. My students have earned National Spanish Exam medals. I've built curriculum from the ground up, mentored colleagues, supervised graduate interns, and led professional development seminars on AI in Education for educators navigating what comes next.

More than any credential, what shaped me as an educator was someone who walked alongside me. An experienced teacher invested in me not just professionally, but personally and prayerfully. She challenged my thinking, helped me refine my practice, and held the standard high. That investment is the reason RootED: A Christian Educator Mentorship Guide exists, and in turn, why this website came to be. Every educator deserves that kind of accompaniment.

Outside the classroom I'm chasing toddlers, hiking trails, shredding mountains with my husband, and, of course, draining the battery on my Kindle. The days are gloriously, chaotically full, and I wouldn't trade a single one.