Hi everyone! It’s nice to meet you all. What feels like many years ago, but was really only about 12 years ago, I was a student of Mrs. Hoyles’ when she was a fifth grade teacher in West Linn, Oregon. I remember my time in fifth grade fondly. In fact, many of my friends from fifth grade are still my friends today! In Mrs. Hoyles’ class, some of her former students used to come visit us. That was the first time I realized that someday I’d grow up, do the things I really wanted to and share my experiences with students to encourage them to do the same!
In fifth grade, I played golf and basketball and my favorite part of the day was when they’d finally let us out to recess. Since the time I was a fifth grade student in Mrs. Hoyles’ class, I have done a great deal of adventurous things. I’ve climbed mountains, gone skydiving and scuba diving, learned to surf, rock climb, raced in a marathon and triathlons and snowshoed through blizzards. For college, I moved to Florida and studied international business. I learned to speak Arabic and spent summers working for aerospace companies. I worked for companies such as Boeing, an airplane manufacturer. If you’ve ever flown in an airplane, you’ve probably flown in a Boeing aircraft!
After I graduated college, I spent some time working, but then I was selected as one of the United Kingdom’s Fulbright Postgraduate scholars.
