Matt Hebbert grew up in Western Nebraska. He participated in lots of sports and different activities, but his true love was singing. Because of this, he went to college on a full-ride choir scholarship and majored in Music Education. He is now known to most as the choir teacher, Mr. Hebbert. To me, he's Hebby. He started teaching at my school when I was in 7th grade. I was not in the choir at the time, so I didn't know much about him. What I did know is that he had suffered from a stroke and could not use his left arm anymore. I knew that he was always kind, and he would always say hi to me in the hallway. I eventually joined the choir my Freshman year, and I got to know Hebby a lot better. In choir class, Hebby would always start the day off by asking how everyone was. He genuinely cared and he wanted to help in any way that he could. I got to have a lot of different talks with Hebby about music and just life in general. Whenever I was down, he was there to give me advice. During my first year of choir, I decided that I wanted to try and sing a solo for one of the fundraisers. Hebby said that it was an awesome idea, so he printed out some sheet music for a song and we started working on it. I quickly got frustrated with myself and my singing abilities and I started to shut down. I was mad that I couldn't sing the song perfectly on my first try. Hebby asked me what was wrong and tried to work through it with me. He told me that when he was my age, he was a lot like me. He wanted everything to be exactly right and he wanted to do everything perfectly. He tried his best to do things perfectly, but he failed. Then, he told me the thing that I needed to hear: It's okay to fail. Failure is just a quick setback that helps us to grow and be better. For all of my life, I had pressured myself to be perfect and I told myself that failure wasn't okay. Then, all of that changed when Hebby told me it was okay to fail. He told me that he would still like me and be proud of me if I missed a note or sang the wrong words. This changed my mindset completely. I had avoided sports because I was scared of failing or not being good. Then, I started to join them and I learned that I wasn't so bad. I became okay with failure. When things didn't go my way, I didn't get frustrated or give up. I started to reset myself and try again until I finally did get it. I started talking to new people and I was finally okay with being myself. I started making jokes and trying to be funny around people because I knew that if my joke failed, it would still be okay. I knew that if someone didn't want to be my friend, it would still be okay. All of this knowledge came from a few simple words from a wise, wise teacher... It is okay to fail.

I am from a small town in Southeastern Wyoming named Guernsey. I love sports and participate in Track, Football, and Basketball. I am involved in Student Council, NHS, and Choir. In the past, I was a part of the Band, Yearbook Club, School Newspaper, House System Leadership Council, and I served as the manager for Volleyball. Outside of school, I am very active in my church and I volunteer as a counselor at a Christian summer camp. I plan to attend Chadron State College in the fall to major in Mathematics Education and throw on the track team. One of my favorite things is helping and teaching others. At school, I like to work with the younger kids out in the weight room and I'm always willing to help them with their schoolwork. My nickname is Tree because I'm very tall, but a lot of the kids call me Father Tree because I have a really good relationship with them. My main goal is to be as caring and kind as I can be; I want to show everyone the love of God, even when it is a struggle. I try to make everyone's day better, even if it is just saying hi to someone that I usually don't say hi to. Someone that has heavily influenced my degree choice is my old Weights teacher, Mr. Horton. Along with teaching weights, Mr. Horton was an At-Risk Coordinator and helped kids who were struggling. In Mr. Horton's first year at my school, as you walked through the door into the school building, the first thing that you would experience was Mr. Horton telling you good morning and asking you how you were doing. Mr. Horton was kind to everyone and was always there when anyone needed someone to talk to. He had a great sense of humor and shared it with everyone to brighten their day. Mr. Horton and I shared many conversations about our struggles, past, and life in general. He was someone that I looked up to, and when I was making life decisions I always looked to him for validation. I was thinking about becoming a teacher in the future, so I went to talk to Mr. Horton about it. He told me that he thought I would be an awesome teacher and even an awesome coach. He also said that the world will always need more math teachers. This gave me confidence in my dream and some courage to go after it. Unfortunately, Mr. Horton had to leave our school. Before he left though, I learned an important lesson from him: It does not matter what subject you teach, you can still impact your students. Your students may not remember the algebra that you taught them, but they will remember how you made them feel and how you treated them. I plan to use my degree to inspire the youth and encourage others to chase their dream. I want to impact every student that I teach at least a little bit, whether it be in critical thinking skills, social skills, work ethic, getting through a rough time, or even just learning to do percentages. I want to encourage my students to be their best and then go even beyond where they thought their best was. I want my students to enjoy going to school, and I want them to be able to learn something every day. With my degree, I could help to impact the youth and encourage them to be the best that they can be.

One thing that I have learned about education is that it doesn't matter what subject you are teaching, it is how you impact your students that matters. The impact that teachers make on their students is crucial to how they grow and who they become in the future. Education is important for many different reasons. I believe that out of all the reasons that education is important, work ethic is the most useful. The mixing of education and mentorship creates a place where students can grow and be the best version of themselves that they can be. Many students my age get frustrated with school and their education. Many times I've heard them say that school is pointless and they're not going to use anything that they learn in school. While it is true that they might not use Trigonometry, Education teaches them something much more useful. Education teaches critical thinking skills, social skills, work ethic, character, how to treat failure, and how to treat success. Although you can learn these things from other experiences, education teaches them early on and puts students in an environment where it is easy to learn them. These skills are invaluable and it is hard to be successful without them. That is why it is important to educate the youth and make sure that they get these skills so that they can be successful. Teachers teach much more than just math or science. Along with teaching them all of the critical thinking skills and work ethic, teachers play a big part in mentoring students. They help students to get through all of the rough times in their lives, and they help students to prosper during the good times in their lives. This mentorship makes a huge impact on the youth and in many cases, can help students from harming themselves or giving up. Teachers have made a large impact on my life. When something is going wrong, the way teachers treat me makes a big difference. If they treat me poorly, I end up breaking down and I can't get anything done. Thankfully, most of my teachers treat me super well. Some of them try to joke around with me or offer me a snack. The ones that make the most impact however are the teachers that pull me aside and ask how they can help me. They give me advice and tell me stories about rough times in their lives. This is the mentorship that can't be given by computers or books. Mentorship and Education of the youth are important because it helps kids to be the absolute best that they can be.

Inspiration is defined as "a feeling of enthusiasm you get from someone or something, that gives you new and creative ideas." I love the idea of getting kids excited about learning and having them come up with new ideas. The reason why I want to be a teacher is so that I can impact others and help them to be the best person that they can be. I have had teachers that inspired me and gave me hope, so I want to do the same thing for my students. There are two ways that I believe you can inspire a student; the way you carry yourself and the way you interact with your students. I feel that the way you carry yourself around your students is very important when trying to inspire them. I plan to have lots of enthusiasm when interacting with my students. I feel like this builds a positive environment for my students where they can be happy and have open thoughts that will lead to inspiration. Along with this, I plan to have firm boundaries, but still be fun and goofy. The students need to know what isn't acceptable in the classroom. If they know this, the environment will be fun, but still controlled and productive. I believe that this will form a great environment for my students that will help them to be inspired and grow. I will always have a positive attitude toward my students. I know that they have their struggles, and I don't want to add to that with a poor attitude. If I'm positive, it can help them to be positive, and that opens the door for lots of learning and growth. Interaction with students is key to inspiration. I plan to build strong relationships with my students. Sometimes students won't remember the quadratic formula, but they will always remember how you treated them, and how you made them feel. I will ask my students how they're doing, make them laugh, build them up, and show them how amazing the world can be. That is how a lot of my teachers have inspired me. They showed me that it doesn't necessarily matter what you're teaching, it is how you teach it and how you treat your students. I want to inspire kids by giving them a good environment where they feel free to prosper.