I first attended Morgan State University in 2010, but transferred to Wayne State University in 2011. I went to Morgan State because it was a Historically Black University and I wanted to experience learning in an environment immersed with people like me. I enjoyed my time at Morgan, but I always felt like something was missing. After some thought I realized I wanted more diversity in my education so I chose a university that allowed me to experience that diversity while gaining knowledge that was rich in culture. I attended Wayne State University from 2011 through 2015, and graduated with my Bachelor's degree in special education (certified elementary K-8, cognitive impairments K-12).

 

    I have wanted to work in special education since 2008 when my high school said that the students with special needs didn't need to go on a field trip and refused to pay for transportation. The other staff and I took the students to the movie theatre via public transportation and I knew then I wanted to be an advocate for students with disabilities. The more time I spent volunteering in the special education classroom, the more I knew I had to have my own classroom one day and give my students everything that life had to offer. Since then, I was relentless in pursuit of a degree in Special Education even seeking additional certifications in Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, being a sponge in each phase of my student teaching experience, and finishing my degree two years earlier than expected.

 

   After graduation I took a brief position at a charter school. I was also expecting my first child so I used the summer break as maternity leave. Since giving birth to my daughter, I returned to work as a special education teacher in a public high school. This high school served under privileged youth many of whom experienced/continued to experience extreme trauma. This shaped me into a trauma sensitive educator. Upon completing the school year, I was presented with an opportunity to teach in Las Vegas, NV at a High School. I learned a small amount of Spanish due to the large bilingual population. I worked in a self contained classroom with Intellectually Disabled students and found in many ways becoming a mother had made me a better educator. I fought harder and advocated more for my students because I found myself demanding more from those in charge of my daughters education. In January 2018 I learned that my daughter had to undergo surgery under general anesthesia. Due to my status as a new teacher in the district I had to resign because I did not have enough sick leave to cover the amount of off time I would need to take for the procedure and the recovery. My daughter is recovered well however in the transition I switched from the district to charter.

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  Since working in the charter school I have been allowed to work from k-12 working with Kinder through 5th grade the 2018/2019 school year and working with 6th through 12th grade the 2019/2020 school year. I recently finished a Master of Ed. in Early Childhood Education in May of 2020. In August of 2020 I will begin a Doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction in the Cultural Studies, International Education, and Multicultural Education (CSIEME). As I have developed my personal philosophy of teaching and investigating my biases, trauma, and how these things effect my outlook, I became highly interested in researching cultural studies and multicultural education. I am still learning but I feel my diverse experiences have offered me many opportunities to challenge myself as an educator, a mother, and a person and push beyond what I thought were my limits.