The Educators Rising’s national student officers tell their personal stories at each general session during the national conference.
At Sunday’s keynote membership luncheon, Vice President of Communications Owen Elsasser shared the moments that led to his commitment to a career in education.
You may be sitting here thinking that a national officer for Educators Rising must have always known they wanted to become a teacher, right? Well, my journey through education probably started the opposite to most of you. When I was young, my twin sister was the one who played teacher, while I was the student. I always enjoyed it, although most of the time I acted as a student with behavior issues just to annoy my sister.
When I started high school in fall 2021, I was set on becoming a super successful, super-rich entrepreneur, and I loaded my schedule with accounting, marketing, and personal finance classes. However, after my freshman year ended in May, I had begun to wonder if business was actually what I wanted to dedicate my life to. I had always been under the impression that teaching wasn’t a male’s profession. I had been conditioned to believe my future career was in the rat race, surrounded by money, but forfeiting color, passion, connection, impact, emotion, and everything else teaching gives us.
Towards the end of the summer before my sophomore year, I was in my mom’s kindergarten classroom, working with incoming kindergarteners. I was engulfed in a diverse classroom, full of nice students, rude students, naughty students, behaving students, students that would only work with me, and students who didn’t even acknowledge me.
When I left her classroom that summer, I had stopped pretending I wanted anything to do with being rich and working a simple 9-5 job after graduation. I stepped into my high school’s student registration prepared to choose every class in our education pathway I possibly could, which brought me to Educators Rising.
For me, there wasn’t just one singular moment that solidified a career in education. Through Educators Rising, it was opportunities like teacher internships at my old middle school, representing our organization at the Nebraska State Capitol, connecting with other passionate future teachers, and getting to work alongside both the Nebraska State Officer team last year and the National Officer team this year. It was hearing from both Nebraska and National Teachers of the Year. These were all stepping stones in my journey toward committing to the field of education. If there is anyone I would want to thank or recognize, anyone who I credit with getting me where I am today, it would be you.
When I tell people I’m a teenager who already knows they want to teach, every time without fail, they respond with a huge ear-to-ear smile. They assure me that the field of education needs young, motivated educators like me. However, they are not just talking about me. All of you here today stand as evidence that the phrase, “the future is bright in education,” is true. I thank all of you for being my inspiration, for giving me the best experiences of my life within EdRising. You have confirmed for me that education is definitely where I belong, and I cannot wait to see years down the line what our EdRising family can accomplish.
