One of my strongest desires as an educator of adults is to assist people down their path, giving them the knowledge and skills to better themselves and their world. By holding myself at the same level as my students, by connecting with their interests and their lives, I’m able to better understand who they are as people and what makes them tick as a student. This, in turn, allows me to better connect with how they learn, how to best engage them in learning, and how to use my own connections outside of the educational environment to help better my students’ lives.

I attempt to instill a love of learning in my students. There’s so much to explore, and the world moves incredibly quickly, especially in the realm of the technology subjects I often teach. I encourage my students to develop a thirst for finding credible and useful information about subjects they are interested in, an incredibly useful skill in an information-based society. I like to get people excited about the possibilities that technology brings, and think about how technology can be used to better the lives of individuals, communities and supportive organizations like nonprofits.

I want to help my students succeed. I do this by not only guiding them with technical knowledge, critical thinking and creative skills, but also by building up their confidence. There is power in believing that you can accomplish something, and a strong base of knowledge and skills goes a long way to strengthen that self-sustaining belief. I encourage my students to try new things, to reach for difficult solutions, to learn from failures, and to celebrate accomplishments.

Ultimately, I’m hoping to make a connection with my students, to step into the role of a trusted mentor. I want to be whom they come to with both difficulties and successes, so that I can assist getting them over impediments and see that light go off in their eyes when they finally understand something they’ve struggled with.