“I think I was about six or seven when I decided to be a teacher,” Rachel remembers. “My neighbors had put up a chalkboard in their basement, and I was so excited. I went home and I created worksheets, and I gave them homework.” Her imaginative play was born of reverence for teachers as role models, and she says it was the type of behavior she was excited to mimic at the time. However, she was deterred from her early aspirations by an unlikely source.

 

“A lot of teachers told me not to become a teacher,” Rachel says. “It’s actually really odd that so many of them told me not to be a teacher.” Whether offered due to a different time in job availability or a cultural tide that has since shifted, her teachers’ lousy advice only provided a temporary sway from her intended career. It was only a matter of receiving the right direction.

 

In high school, Rachel’s crossroads arrived. Intent to pursue a job in science, she submitted a career essay to Tammy Bridges’ class detailing how she wanted to become a petroleum geologist. Since it was her junior year, she had already scheduled a college visit at Missouri University of Science and Technology. After reading her essay, Mrs. Bridges pulled her aside to offer a life-changing bit of constructive feedback.

 

The words remain, hard etched in Rachel’s mind: “She said, I just don’t know if this is something that you’re passionate about.”

 

At first, Rachel was furious. “How is she going to tell me that I don’t want to do this job or that I’m not passionate about this?” After brooding on it for weeks, the day of the college visit arrived. The tour went well enough, but the car ride home with her mother provided further guidance. “She said maybe you should consider what she said to you,” Rachel says, “and if that career is actually something that would make you happy.” If the motive was financial, then maybe Mrs. Bridges was onto something. Until that moment, it had never struck her that she could do something she loved and never have to ‘work a day,’ as her mom said.

 

An image stands out in her mind. It’s her first day as a teacher’s aide her senior year at Teutopolis High School, under the tutelage of a few future Newton folks. Rachel is driving to school, and an unprovoked grin spreads across her face. “I was so excited to see my kids and get to work with them. I was so excited to see who was going to make a big breakthrough that day,” she recalls warmly. That feeling hasn’t changed. In fact, her efforts to help children discover their unique core selves are now heightened by lived experience, natural enthusiasm for education, and a few helping hands from Newton’s finest along the way.