Growing up in a family surrounded by math lovers and educators started my interest in pursuing secondary education for math. My mother, father and brother all have science degrees, specifically in math, so it was almost destined for me to pursue math. My mother has been such a great help and inspiration as she was constantly there for me the night before a big test as my personal tutor. Throughout my high school years, I have had many great experiences with the educators around me. Their consistent care, encouragement and dedication to fulfilling my needs always kept me engaged in the classroom. One teacher who inspired me was my high school math teacher, Mr. Schimnoski. His high energy and pure enjoyment of teaching made me feel so welcome and love my math classes. He strived to engage every student and truly cared for each one of our successes. My first part-time job was also a big inspiration for me to pursue education. I worked as a Customer Service clerk at a local grocery store throughout high school. I enjoyed the dynamic of training and helping other co-workers and felt I did well in teaching others. 

Throughout my years of schooling, I have been so lucky to have my parents, who have always been there to support and assist me through my classes, specifically math. I’ve always really enjoyed math and understood the concepts quickly; however, whenever I was having difficulties, my mom was always there to guide me through it. I could go to her any time to ask her for help, and she’d always be happy to help. She is a math tutor and has taught sessional math classes at the UofR. Her ways of teaching me always helped me when I helped my schoolmates with classwork. When there was a concept that I couldn’t wrap my head around, she would take her time to describe it to me in a different way. My mom has always loved tutoring and teaching classes, and she even has asked me what she can do to be a better help. While teaching me, I would pick up on simple ways she’d explain concepts, and I started using those when teaching my friends. Her love for teaching and math greatly inspired me, empowering me to see a strong fellow woman pursue math. My mom is one of my most significant role models, and I want to be able to be that for future students.

My high school years were filled with challenges as any student goes through, but it was all around; it was a super enjoyable experience. I owe that to many of the outstanding educators I had throughout my four years at Greenall High School. Going into high school, I took all the math classes I could, and my teacher, Mr. Schimnoski, taught me math for most of my classes. He was such a vibrant and caring teacher, always expressing how we could stop in at any time for any math help we needed. He strived to make math fun which sometimes can be hard to do. He would sing these songs to make us remember specific rules and had these funny posters in his room stating if we didn’t follow a math rule, we’d kill a cat. These ways of teaching made it way easier for us to remember. He could always tell when the students stopped paying attention, and he’d bounce around the classroom engaging everyone, so we started listening. There was never a day going into math class where he didn’t have a massive smile on his face and excitement to teach us. His love for teaching showed me how amazing it could be to be a teacher and all the fun and different ways I could teach. As he inspired me, I realized I could be that inspiration for future students. I have never had a female math teacher, and as a young female student, it wasn’t easy to only see male representation in almost all STEM courses. This made me realize this could be the same for many other female youth. When you start learning subjects from an educator, you begin to connect with them as a person, and although Mr. Schimnoski was a great help, I did feel a divide when I knew we had two different roles in this society due to our gender. This inspired me to pursue math as an educator so I could be that role model for young female students, showing them that females will succeed in math courses and that your gender does not define your success.

I worked at a local grocery shop, IGA, in White City throughout high school. I was hired as a cashier, and as I worked there longer, I got promoted to a Customer Service Clerk. I enjoyed the job’s tasks as it included math but also teaching other cashiers and helping customers. Training other cashiers was always super fun for me. I knew exactly how they felt when they were first starting and how scary it can be to learn new concepts. I enjoyed not only the training but also the connection I made with my co-workers when helping them. It sparked many new friendships and showed me what can result from teaching others. My boss even noticed how I enjoyed the training, and she always tried to schedule me to train others. I remember the day she told me how she could always count on me to introduce and train the new staff, which inspired me to want to educate others. It felt good to be able to help others and watch them learn and succeed because of my assistance.

I have always had difficulty deciding what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I knew I wanted to go to University but could never pick what I wanted to pursue. However, after looking back at all my experiences in high school, I realized I truly enjoyed the dynamic of teaching others. With my mother’s inspiration for always assisting me and the consistent care and encouragement from my math teacher, I started to understand that being an educator was the perfect option for me. I got to understand the role of teaching others through my job at IGA, and I now hope to be that role model like my mom and math teacher were and show future female youth that women will succeed in STEM courses.