My name is Emmi Sullivan, and I am a disabled individual. I graduated high school in 2023 and am a freshman at Lone Star College-University Park, studying education part-time. I am also working on being inducted into their honor society and towards my induction into the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) in April of this year. I volunteer at Special Pals, a non-profit organization and animal shelter in Katy, Texas. During the summer, I volunteered at Special Cheers, which supports individuals with disabilities and is where people with disabilities thrive and do activities like horseback riding, arts and crafts, etc. I also volunteered at an elementary school in Klein ISD to read a book to elementary school students as part of my teaching club. I will learn how to become a leader in the National Society of Leadership and Success. I am a strong candidate for this scholarship because I am deeply committed to giving back to my community through volunteering and community service, engaging in these efforts multiple times yearly. I strive to excel academically while prioritizing my volunteer work, supporting animals, and uplifting my community. My upcoming induction into the honor society is a testament to my dedication and hard work. I plan to positively impact my community by volunteering more frequently with individuals with disabilities at organizations beyond Special Cheers. Additionally, I aspire to become a special education teacher in the future. Gaining experience through volunteering with disabled individuals before entering the teaching profession will enhance my qualifications and provide me with valuable insights into various disabilities. I also intend to educate myself about different types of disabilities by reading books and watching informative YouTube videos. As a disabled individual aiming to be a special education teacher, I believe it is essential to understand various disabilities and special needs to become a more qualified educator when I eventually have my own classroom. I want to volunteer more because I believe it benefits the community. I will also become a better leader and open up more opportunities, mainly if I include my volunteer work with animals and individuals with disabilities on my resume. I believe that volunteering is good for the soul and not just good for your resume. It also builds character, especially when you volunteer with other people and you show them how things or done. I believe volunteering is a great way to bond with others.

My name is Emmi Sullivan. I graduated high school in 2023. I took the education CTE classes from freshman to senior year of high school, and I absolutely loved it. I got to intern for two consecutive school years in elementary school classrooms, and that is how I knew how I wanted to be in the education field. I am a freshman in college at Lone Star College-University Park. I have special needs/disabilities, and I plan on teaching special education or an inclusion class at an elementary school. I get to take two observation classes for my degree, and when I can observe in person, I plan on observing in an elementary school special education class. Right now, I am doing YouTube observations. I am a member of the Teachers2Be club, which has opportunities to volunteer in the education field and learn more about the teaching profession. I am also a member of the NSLS, which is an honor society that teaches you how to be a leader. At the end of April, I will have completed my steps, and I will be inducted as a member for the rest of my life. I plan on using my leadership skills that I will learn from the NSLS in my future classroom. What interests me about my degree program is that I will finish with an Associate's Degree, and then I can move on to a different college campus that's located on my campus to get my Bachelor's in education, which is pretty cool. I plan to teach at Tomball ISD, which is the school district I graduated from. It's a great school district, and I had mostly positive experiences as an alumni. I believe every child has the potential to learn and achieve greatness in life. I hope to be a teacher who engages with her students and leaves a lasting impact on the students that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Every child deserves to feel safe, loved, and cared for, and I plan to do that in my future classroom by having all of the resources I can have for them in my classroom. I believe that my students will succeed in my classroom because I will show them so much love and care for them like they are my own. I feel like I am very caring, which is a characteristic that a teacher needs to be in the teaching profession.

I have special needs, and I am medically complex. I was diagnosed with autism at 18 months, anxiety, and ADHD in second grade, and multiple chronic illnesses starting my sophomore year of high school. In high school, I volunteered with the PALS program (Practical Application of Life Skills) during my freshman and sophomore years to help kids with special needs learn how to play instruments. Unfortunately, the program with the instruments ended when the teacher who led the program left my high school to go teach at a different one. I plan to teach special education in an early childhood setting or teach in a mainstream class that has students with special needs come into my classroom. If I teach a mainstream classroom that has students with special needs come in, I will teach my mainstream students about how to treat people with special needs by reading books and using personal examples. I also plan to do more volunteering and interact with other people who have special needs at Special Cheers, which is an organization that has a focus on serving people with special needs. I can contact a local elementary school near me to see if I could help students who have special needs. I plan to learn more about other types of special needs, like both medical and physical ones, and apply my knowledge of both of those to my future classroom(s). I plan to write easy-to-read and understand books about the different types of special needs, and self-publish them as long as they are accurate. I plan to make my classroom environment as inclusive as possible, and I want my mainstream students to learn that it's ok to interact with those who are different than them. If I ever change or make updates on my current Instagram page, I plan to change it to educate people about the special needs/medical conditions that I live with and rarer ones you may not see that often. I also plan to do more advocacy and education work on my current page. When I do my work, I will allow questions, as long as they are respectful and not too intrusive or off-topic because I want my page to be a safe space for all. In my classroom, I plan to work very hard on myself and focus on the unique needs of my students. I will show all of my students love, and I will treat them all equally.

I am pursuing a career in teaching because I love kids, and I think they are a lot of fun to work with. In high school, I took two education classes that allowed me to intern at elementary, intermediate, or high school. I chose elementary school, and I adored every second of it. That's when I learned that the teaching career is my calling. In high school, I had a teacher named Mrs. Sibert. I took all four of her classes on the CTE path and loved them all. She is a literal lifesaver. I knew it would be a good day when I walked into a class. I had a mental breakdown one day, and she worked with me through it. It was amazing, and it changed my life for the better. That's another reason I want to pursue a career in teaching- to help other students. I want to be the change for the students, just like Mrs. Sibert was to me. I plan on teaching elementary school, preschool, or special education. I want to let my students know that they are loved and that they have value, which is what Mrs. Sibert did to my classmates and me. Mrs. Sibert changed my life for the better in high school, and I will never forget that because of the impact she left on me and my classmates. She influenced me a lot in high school, and I will never ever forget the influence she left on me so I could influence my students. I remember another teacher from elementary school named Mrs. Pizzi. She was a resource class teacher and had a big influence on my life, which is also why I want to be a teacher. She helped me with my math, which improved quickly when she assisted me in the resource class. I miss her a lot; she is part of why I lean toward being a special education teacher. She respected my classmates and me, and we respected her back, which is something I still love about her. She was also a really fun teacher; we played many fun math games with her. I remember being in fourth grade and being so excited to learn about decimals, which I thought were the coolest thing then because I felt so sophisticated learning about them. I still think decimals are the coolest thing ever, thanks to Mrs. Pizzi.

I am pursuing a teaching career because when I was in high school, I did classes that allowed me to intern at an elementary, intermediate, or high school. I chose to intern at elementary schools in my school district because I think elementary school-age kids are fun, and I realized how much of an impact I had left on my students in both of my internship classes. During my junior year of high school, I interned in an elementary school music class four days a week. I loved helping the teachers and students by decorating backdrops, supervising students with their instruments, and getting candy for the students if they did well. During my senior year of high school, I interned in a kindergarten classroom, and the students loved me. They respected me and were always on their best behavior when I came into their class four days a week. When a substitute teacher was in their class, I always showed the substitute respect and ensured that the students also showed respect. I am a half-time Lone Star College-University Park student enrolled in the AAT program (Associate's Art in Teaching). As part of my degree, I am taking a class involving observations. Since I cannot do the class in person, I am doing observations online that involve elementary school teachers teaching a lesson. I love seeing the students' interest in the lessons because they are eager to learn about the subject. When I was younger, I loved pretending to be a teacher with my dolls and stuffed animals. I always enjoyed teaching them when I was learning. As I got older, I would tell my parents what I learned in school. When I was in eighth grade, it was time to choose our high school classes. I signed up for the CTE education classes because I was really interested. My mom asked if I was sure I wanted to be in those classes, and my answer was a resounding yes. I took my first CTE teaching class in my first year of high school. I had so much fun learning about teaching methods, what teachers do and how they do it, etc. I had so much fun in that class, which led to me taking internship classes, which has now led to me being a half-time student in the Associate's Art in Teaching, which I love because it has engaging courses that will lead to my degree.

My experience with disabilities has influenced my beliefs, relationships, and career aspirations by making me believe that hard work is worth it in the end, especially if I want to be a teacher in special education, mainstream, or even both. One of my most prominent beliefs is that everyone should be included, especially disabled individuals. I was excluded from a mainstream class in fourth grade and will never forget that experience. It still haunts me to this day. I believe I was excluded because I was different from my peers. My experience with disability has dramatically affected my relationships- it can be hard for me to maintain relationships, mainly because I have multiple chronic illnesses alongside autism, epilepsy, ADHD, etc. It makes it hard for me to see my friends. Disability has affected my career aspirations, but I am determined to get my Associate's degree and then my Bachelor's degree in education. I cannot take my classes in person, so I am taking them online right now until I get my seizures under control. I was diagnosed with autism at eighteen months old, ADHD in second grade, and epilepsy in my sophomore year of high school. I was diagnosed with more chronic illnesses as I have gotten older. I had leadership experience in high school as an upperclassman taking my CTE education course. That day, there was a substitute teacher, and the children were starting to cause chaos because the regular teacher wasn't there. They figured they could get away with behaviors they couldn't when the regular teacher wasn't there. The children were wrong. I started disciplining and taking charge of some of them while the substitute teacher took charge of the rest of the students. They reluctantly started to behave themselves. I was ready to cry because I was overwhelmed by the chaos of the bad behavior, but then I calmed myself down and was ready to take charge along with the substitute teacher. I felt better about myself when it was time to ride the bus and return to high school, and I knew I could start improving my leadership skills at the time. Now, I am in the NSLS through my school, which teaches me how to improve my leadership skills. The NSLS is an honor society, and it is by invitation only. At the leadership training day (LTD) and my first Success Networking Team (SNT), we learned what it takes to be a leader and the different leadership positions, which was really helpful for me.