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Professional: I spent the year at community collage and the four years before that at Watauga High School. I first had the desire to teach in 8th grade. My 8th grade history teacher really engaged me and picked up on my interest for history. In high school my interest grew as I had a slew of history teachers whose lessons influenced my personal development . After spending a year a community collage I transferred to Appalachian.

Personal: I am the oldest child in my family with a sister currently in high school. My father is a pastor and my mother currently works at Appalachian. Because my father is a Pastor we moved quite a bit when I was younger. I was born in Collage Station, Texas but at a young age we moved to Chattanooga Tennessee where I spent most of my elementary years. While in the fifth grade we moved once again to Blowing Rock, North Carolina where I have lived for the past ten years.

Peculiar: Apart from the fact that at the age of ten I was watching the History channel on a regular basis and watching John Wayne westerns, I like some weird stuff. I am a huge reader which was apparent when I read all of the lord of the Rings books as well as the Hobbit in the sixth grade while a lot of students were having a hard time reading a Chistmas Carol. I also love to pay video games and for my weirdest action for my twentieth birthday I bought a Batman comic and Pop figure.

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Professional: I teach younger kids swim lessons. I have to come up with lesson plans and learn how to handle a vairety of personalities and abilities, all while keeping them safe in the water. I teach ages 6 months- adult. I fell in love with teaching from the first day.

Personal: I have a little brother (8 years) and a younger sister (19). When my sister and I were younger, I would teach her about the things I was learning in school. We would pretend to be in a classroom. She actually was offered to skip a grade because she was actually learning what I was teaching. I've always pretty much known that I wanted to be a teacher.

Peculair: My nick name is "sushi girl." Not because of my love for sushi but because my little brother would call me that when he was a toddler, and it stuck. My whole family and a few close friends now call me sushi. And some of the kids I babysit, don't even know my real name. They just call me sushi.

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Professional:
I attended Jordan-Matthews High School in Siler City, Chatham County. I have several summers of babysitting experience. One child I baby sat was adopted from Guatemala. During my sophomore year, I took a class called Teacher Cadet. The last three weeks of this class were spent at my former K-8 school working with one of my favorite teachers in her middle school science classroom. Currently, I am majoring in Elementary Ed and minoring in psychology. I would like to earn my Master's degree and my National Board certification in the future.

Personal:
My parents names are Patrick and Cindy King. I have a younger brother named Aaron who will be a freshmen in high school this year. I also have a yellow lab named Sunshine. I miss all of them very much. I am also very close with my mom's mom whom I call Nanny. Her and my Papa are already excited about coming up for Appalachian football games.

Peculiar:
Sharks are my worst fear even though I know that is a very irrational thing to be afraid of. Luckily, I only have to face and worry about this fear one week out of the entire year.

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Professional: During middle and high school I would help out in my mom's class. Every summer except for this one I would work as a program aid at a girl scout day camp. I also volunteered at an art camp during spring break my junior in high school.

Personal: I am the youngest of three ( 1 older sister and 1 older brother) and my older sister graduated from App in 2012. I used to volunteer with an animal rescue group from eighth grade up until my senior year. I have a 16 year old german shepard/lab mix named Sampson who I like to think is my furchild. And I went to washington DC over the summer with my girl scout troop and tried authentic chinese and ethiopian food.

Peculiar: I have a weird addiction to peanut butter. and I have close to 1000 books on my kindle not including paper copy books on my shelf at home ( I even have two signed books from the matched series).

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Professional: I attended T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. While there I was able to participate in academic clubs, marching band, varsity volleyball and basketball. Throughout my senior year I also had the wonderful opportunity to read with elementary kids that read at a lower reading level.

Personal: I am originally from Kentucky, but was raised in South Carolina. I love all things sports, outdoors, music, and dogs. My family consists of an older brother that is at the University of South Carolina, my two parents, and three dogs.

Peculiar: I hate heights, except when my feet are on the ground such as on a mountain after a nice hike. I just don't do heights.

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Professional: I spent 4 years at Wakefield High School in Raleigh, NC. I was the President of my schools chapter of National English Honor Society  and an active member of many other clubs. I played softball and was on my schools dance team. I worked for the Kerr YMCA for two years and fell head over heels in love with working with children. Working with the YMCA influenced my drive to become a teacher.

Personal: I have 4 sisters and they are my life. They are my best friends and my favorite people, whenever I have anything going on in my life good or bad they are the first I go to. I also have 2 cats and they may or may not be my life. Their names are Atlas and Callie but my sister and I call them girl cat and boy cat, or puppy cat and sly dog because of the way they act! I love music and dancing as well as just snuggling up with The Office and my cats!

Peculiar: I turned my entire house into an animal hospital when I was 6. I spent a summer saving sick animals from the pond that I lived near. I ended up helping a baby squirrel, 6 kittens, 4 baby birds, and 5 turtles that summer. All the animals either found new homes (specifically the cats and turtles) or were released back into the wild with some help from a local veterinarian.

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Professional: I attended Davie high school in Mocksville NC. There, I took two life changing classes, childhood education I and II. During these courses I had the opportunity to intern in an elementary and day care setting. I chose a classroom of two year olds and a kindergarten classroom. This experience showed me that I wanted to make a difference too, I wanted to be a teacher. I graduated highschool in 2014, and went on to a two year school and got my associate degree. There, I learned my passion, history. I have now decided to pursue a degree in history with a minor in education. I hope to one day become a professor, hence why I am here at Appalachian!

Personal: I had the opportunity to travel abroad this summer with a organization called Education First Tours. I visited four countries, and eleven cities in 11 days. I saw Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein. This trip gave me yet another realization, I have to travel! I want to not only make a difference in the world, but I want to see the world, all of it.

Peculiar: I used to show cows, and if you know me at all now, you know how crazy that is. I am not that girl, I grew up in the country but I am a city girl at heart. My best friend however, lives on a diary farm, and has rubbed off on me a little. I showed cattle with her for years, until one day I finally told her I hated it, and was afraid of the cows!

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Professional: In high school I was captain of both the cross country and track team and I also held leadership positions in Baking Club and Science National Honor Society

Personal: I have one older brother who is 20 and two step brothers who are 9, one is from my dad's marriage and one is from my mom's marriage. I love cats and I'm addicted to ice cream. I like photography, running, and baking.

Peculiar: I'v moved 10 times and I've lived in 4 states, I pole vaulted in high school, and I'm scared of the dark.

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Professional: My sophomore year in high school I was one of the youngest students accepted into my schools teacher cadet program. Through this program, I interned at a local elementary school daily and continued this internship for three years. Having been in this program since I was 15, I put in over 500 service hours in which I was working with students (all of whom I miss very much) and teaching. In addition, I was president of our schools Future Teachers of America club. As a result of my experience and passion, I became one of the four  first recipients for a scholarship given by my county that highly resembles the former Teaching Fellows program.

Personal: I was born in New Jersey but grew up in Wilmington, NC and have lived there for 14 years. I have an older sister that attends Chapel Hill and older step-brother and step-sister who live in New York along with my mother and step-father. I have a very old dog named Marmalade and a very fat cat named Zeus. I horseback ride and compete in shows and have since I was 11. Teaching has been something I've wanted to do since fourth grade and now, being in college working towards my teaching degree, is a dream come true.

Peculiar: I am terrified of frogs and always have been. I have no idea why and never had some weird traumatic experience with them. I don't mind them from a distance but as soon as they come anywhere near me, I freak out.

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Professional: I grew up in Charlotte North Carolina until I was 15 then I moved to Greensboro North Carolina. I attended Grimsley Senior High School in Greensboro. During high school I was involved with my youth group at my church and was a student leader all four years of high school.

Personal: I have three older brothers. I'm close with my mom and dad who have always encouraged me not matter what. I have a really cute dog that I actually miss a lot but its all good. I also like to bake/cook and could really go for some nice warm brownies right about now.

Peculiar: I like to go to bed early and wake up early.

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Professional: At Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, North Carolina, I was a peer tutor for three years, Vice President of The Service Learning Club, and held a editor position for the 2016 Yearbook. For a short period at the start of this year, I tutored a young girl whose family hailed from Vietnam. I received The Eye of The Tiger Award at my Senior Ceremony, designated by teachers for a individual who excelled academically and who helped others excelled, and it was a great honor to be given this award by those who inspire me.

Personal: My decision to teach and restoration of my faith were both prompted by a family I was supposed to have a homestay with in Peru, however later that evening I became very ill and had to get to a cleaner area. The mother took care of her three young sons and teenage daughter by herself, as her husband was imprisoned for a crime. She at first was convinced that he was innocent, but as time wore on... She wasn't so sure. While the family had one of the nicer homes in the area, it was built from  what I could describe as plywood and was surrounded by feral dogs. This woman is living in a situation I could never fathom and yet she spoke so much of her faith in God; it gave me a lot of hope. I entertained her three sons with what little Spanish I had, and I taught them a simple hand game called Chopsticks. As they caught on, they went and taught other kids in the surrounding area and up to when I left I saw the children playing it. While it was small, I made an impact and decided that maybe I do know what I want to do with life.

Peculiar: I cannot consume mashed potatoes. Any other form of potato, count me in! It's a texture thing for me and people always seem offended.

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Professional: I went to Athens Drive High School in Raleigh North Carolina.  My junior year, I was an intern in my school's preschool.  I taught Chinese Dance to kids of all ages for about four or five years.  I babysat this past summer and I went in to help out in my neighbor's elementary school.

Personal: I was adopted from China when I was eight months old.  I was brought to American and I have grown up in Oak Park (suburb of Chicago), IL and I moved to Cary, NC when I started middle school.  I have three older siblings and one younger sister.  I have always wanted to be a teacher.  My older sister is an elementary teacher, too, and it would be a dream to one day work with her in Maryland.

Peculiar: Over spring break, my family got stranded in Costa Rica. Our flight back to Atlanta got canceled.  We spent an extra night in San Jose.  Then, obviously, we missed our flight to Raleigh and there were absolutely no flights around for us to come home.  We had to drive 6 hours home from Atlanta.

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Professional: Last year I was in a class that met 4 days of the week. 2 of those days were spent teaching third graders at a local elementary school and the other 2 were spent teaching physical education to the special ed department of my high school. This past summer I worked in a preschool.

Personal: I have a younger sister who is 14 as well as an older half sister who is 40. My nephew is only 5 months younger than me and I also have 2 nieces. My favorite family member however is my guinea pig, Hamlet, mostly because he doesn't "borrow" my clothes and he purrs when I'm around him rather than screaming at me.

Peculiar:  I have a fear of feet, a love for coloring, and an allergy to coconut.

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Professional: The summer before my senior year of high school I had the opportunity to meet with Congresswoman Virginia Foxx at Washington, D.C. in her office, as well as got to air on an episode of C-SPAN with her while she was discussing a bill.

Personal: I left apart of my heart with the kindergarteners I interned with back home this past year. I miss them and my family a lot and moving away has been really hard.

Peculiar: I am allergic to a variety of things, such as peanuts and tomatoes, but I can eat peanut butter (my favorite candy is Reese's) and tomato sauce (my favorite food is pizza).

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Assistant Director

James Center for Appalachian Educators

Professional-I have been in education for 12 years in grades K-6 and as a curriculum coach. I am a former Appalachian State Teaching Fellows and received my BS degree in elementary education and my Master of Arts Degree in Curriculum and Instruction Specialist.

Personal-My 3.5 year old daughter, Emma Reese, keeps me on my toes with her curiosity and energy. We love puzzles, Disney Princesses, and books.

Peculiar-I have lived in all 3 regions of the state, recently moving from Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks.

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Professional: During High School I have had an internship that involved me working at an elementary school. I was an amazing experience and I have learned more about teaching there than out of any text book.

Personal: I am extremely close to my family and miss them very much while I am gone for college. I am 2 hours from home but I know I picked the right school to transfer to because I love being outside and anything that evolves snow. I have the most amazing friends in the world and hope they feel the same way about me.

Peculiar: I have realized I cannot go a day without music. My absolute favorite artist is Taylor Swift. I love her music and that she's not crazy like most other artist these days.