• My name is Michelle Bussa and I am a sophomore at Grandvalley State University. Ever since first grade when I was asked the popular question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I always answered proudly “A Teacher!”

• As I got older I found myself filling in “teaching roles” whether it was being a teacher assistant for a Sunday school class in church or being a teacher at a summer vacation bible school. I had enjoyed working with kids.

• Not only did I find myself some teaching roles but I also found myself surrounding myself with kids by becoming a nanny for a summer for a family of three kids.

• There was a point I realized that I didn’t only enjoy being with kids but rather it was a passion. That point was when I took a mission trip to Sarasota Florida my freshman year of college. I spent the whole week volunteering at Palmetto Head Start.

• I had to work in a classroom with difficult children who came from broken homes. The children in the classroom I was assigned were ages 4-5 and came from a wide variety of races.

• I was able to work with the children as a group and individually. The children clung onto me because all they wanted was attention. I found myself leaving after the school day feeling extremely happy and excited to come back the next morning.

• On the last day one little boy hugged me and looked up at me with his big white eyes and asked “can I call you Mommy?”, that’s when I realized I want to spend the rest of my life teaching kids just like these supposedly difficult students I spent all week with.

• All my life I have had people encouraging me to become a teacher but it was always I career choice for me because I thought I would be good at it but after leaving Sarasota I realized it is not a career choice anymore it is a passion.

• My dream is to teach at an Intercity school or at some sort of Head Start program. My dream is to touch children in a way that when they grow up they will remember me and the impact I may have had on them. I want to be there for children who need a “Motherly” role model and to help them mount up to something great, to everything they can be. I want to feel the feeling I felt leaving the Head Start after a day with the kids. The feeling of excitement to go back the next day

• My mom always told me find a job doing something that you enjoy doing and that is exactly what I plan on doing, which is becoming a Teacher!