My father was a teacher, then a retired Air Force veteran, and once again a teacher. He was always thinking of ways to test me. On the funny side, two events come to mind. The first was about cherry pie. Our family liked pies—Rhubarb for my brother and apple for my mother and sister. Cherry was for Dad and me. One Thanksgiving I was to have a lifelong pie lesson. I complained about how big of a slice he took out of the new pie. He turned to me and handed me the slice of pie. Then he took the rest of the pie and ate it. Point Dad. Not long after that came you have to be smarter than ___ lesson. I was a pretty good football player in high school and he always said I had two speeds, not moving or too fast. When leaving the house I would run through the kitchen and out the door to the carport. I had it timed perfectly. I was turning the doorknob, pulling the door open, and sliding through in one motion. He was sitting at the kitchen table when I came through a warp speed when I pulled the door and it was locked. I hit the wall so hard that I damaged the drywall. The lesson was two-fold. I learned to repair drywall and as my dad pointed out I only had to be smarter than the door. Two points Dad. I could also write about my amazing brother. He is a Navy combat veteran with a silver star and 2 purple hearts. But my last dad's story is about when he told me not to be ashamed of washing out of Army Rotary Wing flight school. He crashed two planes be he moved into AirForce intelligence. He was so proud when I did not fail flight school and became a warrant officer with a medivac specialty. But this story is about a Medivac pilot (me) who loved my service and went on to 35 years of Healthcare software sales. However, that is not the ending to my story. I am blessed with great health and mental acuity so I wanted the last part of my career to be as important as my first years in the Army. Like my dad teaching is my last goal. Many years ago, I began teaching business classes at Rutledge Junior College. Most of those students had a rough life and wanted to learn to make their lives better. I loved it and wanted to help since I knew how much my family helped me. More recently I started being a substitute around COVID-19. My daughter who has now taught special education for 22 years, asked me to be a substitute teacher because of the teacher shortage. I got the teaching bug. Why ask for a scholarship later in life? There is a huge shortage of Special Education teachers so I am pursuing a master’s in special education. The goal is to be certified to teach children with mild to moderate disabilities. This is an expensive venture. More so when you raise two wonderful granddaughters. All scholarships matter. I will start teaching special education in the fall on a provisional certification. That way I can effect change faster and add years to my teacher impact. Thank you for your consideration.