Alum Annie Dotson took her experience in the classroom to a career in health, where she focuses her research on pregnancy and young children.
Q & A
What would you consider your biggest success as a teacher?
I think teaching is filled with so many successful moments. My proudest moment while I was still teaching involved one of my special education students who couldn’t read beyond a first or second-grade level when she entered my classroom. I worked with her a lot after school and during lunch. I had the opportunity to teach her for two years. At the end of those two years, she was actually doing a pretty amazing job reading. I remember the best moment was when she raised her hand to read in front of the class, something she would never have done at the beginning because she was really nervous about her reading capabilities. It was amazing to see her grow so much.
My second biggest success moment was when one of my students got into medical school. She thanked me for helping her get to that point even though it had been five or six years before. I just felt so immensely proud of her and all her accomplishments. Actually, on my last count, I have three former students in medical school!
How was the corps a catalyst for your personal transformation?
I would not be at all the person I am today without my experience in the corps. It was a pinnacle point for transformation and shaping my life outlook.
Was leaving the classroom a difficult decision to make?
It really was. I loved being in the classroom. I loved my students. It was actually my students who encouraged me to pursue something medical. They encouraged me to use my skill set in a way that would still impact their communities, just in a different way.
How do you use the skills and beliefs you developed in the corps?
I use my skills from TFA every day. As a clinician, I have to educate my patients and often convey complex topics. As a researcher, I have to translate my work so that it’s easily understood and applicable to people not involved in my field.
When you reflect on your time in the corps, what surprised you most about your experience?
TFA is when you feel the most successful and likely the time you’ll feel like the biggest failure. I think anything worthwhile must come with these two opposing feelings. When you have your successes, you truly recognize them and celebrate them, and when you have a failure, you use it as a time to reflect and learn.