Math teacher Samantha Peach – Purdue University Northwest 2021

Q: What piece of advice/life token would you give someone entering their 20’s based off of what has happened to you in your life?
A: ”Probably don’t be afraid to make mistakes as long as you’re able to get to the finish line, that’s all that matters. Whether you’re going to college if it takes you 6 years it takes you 6 years it doesn’t matter. It took me 6 years to graduate college, but I did it. Just don’t give up.”

Q: How and why did you choose to pursue a career in education and decide that college was the best option for you?
A: ”I knew that I wanted to go into education because I had many teachers that inspired me to actually want to teach. They were very inspirational and taught me how to actually love math and that’s why I went for math teaching in the first place. I don’t think there’s any other way to get a math teaching degree. I mean there’s plenty of other ways to get into a good career. My brother started doing machine shop in high school and by the time he ended up getting out of high school. Before even graduation he was already in a job at a machine shop starting his journey there.”

Q: What challenges involving love, career, and day to day life do you feel like are the hardest to overcome and why?
A: ”Self-awareness and having a support system is probably one of them; like being able to actually get out of that area being reassured by others is a good thing like having the feeling of others being around being supported is a big important part of being able to continue forward.”

Q: What is something that you wish you would’ve known before entering your 20’s?
A: ”That being an adult is pretty hard, you have to be pretty aware of everything, knowing how to finance, being able to manage your own money,and manage your life, your time, you don’t get any of that time back, you have to plan in a way to get everything done that you need in a day. There’s only 24 hours in a day but yet there’s 100 things you might need to get done.”

Q: If you could do it all over again would you do anything differently and if so what would it be?
A: ” I don’t think I would. I’m pretty content with how everything has gone for me at least. Nothing’s really gone too wrong. If I was able to go back before I graduated high school I would have gotten more involved in school activities and maybe do a couple more challenging classes that actually pushed me a little more instead of being afraid of failure. Because that was one thing I was afraid of failing. I always wanted to take the easy way out, so I feel like challenging yourself might be a little bit better. I always wanted to go back in time and change that because I never challenged myself as much as I probably should have. I never took a language class in high school because I was too afraid I was going to fail. So going back in time and challenging myself probably would’ve been a good thing.”

Q: Are you happy with where you are currently at and do you always plan to stay in this career?
A: ”Well it’s only my first year, but I want to be able to teach for a while and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I love being around kids, I love being in a group of younger individuals trying and hopfullying inspiring them to love math how I love math. Maybe even inspire them to possibly get into teaching one day. Maybe even make an impact in their lives if they are maybe even having a hard day.

Q: For high school graduates that are choosing to go to college what advice would you give them?
A: ”Don’t give up, keep on persevering through the toughest times, even when class is hard you fail, retake it and just keep trying because you want to try and get to your end goal. Just don’t give up, giving up is a way of going down. I wanted to give up several times, but I just kept on going because I knew what I wanted to do and I wanted to stick with it because it was always something I wanted to do ever since I was little.”