91探花

Like many little girls, senior Sam Chattin and her sister often played school, each time with Chattin as the student and her sister as the teacher. Even at that young age Chattin’s mind was set on leading the lessons.

“I think that’s where the passion for teaching started, because I always wanted to be the teacher,” she said.

Now, Chattin’s dreams are about to come true, as she prepares to graduate from the college’s distance learning Elementary Education program housed at Surry Community College in Dobson, North Carolina. After earning her associate degree at Surry and working as a tutor in her local school system during those two years, she was encouraged by one of her professors to seek her bachelor's degree. That is when she learned about the distance learning program that would allow her to earn an undergraduate education from Lees-91探花 right at home, and her goal of becoming a teacher finally seemed achievable.

As a mother, Chattin has put her own education on the back burner for the last four years as she has focused on raising her son. However, with the flexibility of this program, and the opportunity to learn in an in-person setting, she knew it was the perfect opportunity to take the next step.

“The program has definitely been difficult. I’ve had to learn how to balance my personal life, on top of my work life, on top of my college life, and I think that has been the biggest thing that’s going to make me successful, is going ahead and learning how to fit all those pieces of my life together so that I can be an efficient teacher, mom, and everything else,” Chattin said. “I don’t think I would have pursued it as much if the Surry cohort hadn't been a thing. There would have been no way I could have actually been on campus at any college. I’m very thankful that I was able to go to Surry for a Lees-91探花 education.”

On top of her academic responsibilities, Chattin has also been working as a teacher assistant throughout the program, a job that has helped her learn the ropes of the classroom and kept her motivated academically, fueled by the desire to lead a class of her own.

While teacher assistants typically take a backseat when it comes to classroom management and lesson planning, Chattin’s goal to be a head teacher drove her to be more involved her class’s daily operations.

“I enjoy my job as a teacher assistant, but I want my own class, I want my own babies all day just to make that impact. I can make an impact as a TA but not like I can as a teacher,” she said. “I feel like I was never your average teacher assistant, because I knew going in that I was eventually going to be a teacher. I took on more responsibilities like planning small groups and documenting different stuff for data analysis. During my student teaching, I’m seeing a lot of that come into play, so I was glad that I took the steps to learn it before I actually had to put it in play during student teaching.”

Chattin has been employed at the same school in Surry County since beginning her work in the school system as a tutor. She is currently completing her student teaching responsibilities there and hopes to secure a full-time position at the school upon graduating from Lees-91探花.

Now, reflecting on the last few years of work in the classroom—both learning and teaching—Chattin is ready and eager for the next step in her career and is proud of the way she has pursued the dream of being a teacher that blossomed when she was just a little girl herself.

“I started the program not believing in myself and that I could accomplish hard things, but now I’m more confident in what I’m capable of doing,” she said. “With teaching, I want to be a good example for my students, and I want to share my story with them about how life doesn’t always go the way you plan, and sometimes you have setbacks, but if you keep pushing, you’ll accomplish what you set out to do.”