Hey guys! I'm Laurie, but i go by Danielle. I am 20 years old. A little bit about my life: I am an only child and I grew up in a private Christian school my whole life. I had eight people in my graduating class. Crazy right? at the end of my eighth grade year, my parents got separated and that was really tough on me. I was in a dark place and on top of that i was starting high school. My friends who i thought were my friends were not really and that was hard for me to accept. I remember my spanish teacher was the one person i could confide in and she really helped me get through that time. I knew someday i wanted to be a teacher just like her. by senior year everything started looking up and i was on a great track. Now i have just graduted from tcc with my associates of science and I am in my junior year here at odu. everyone who knows me knows that i have wanted to be a teacher from the beginning. I rememebr being as young as 5 playing "school' and being the "teacher". I would set up a row of chairs in my kitchen and put my doll babies on each chair pretending they were riding the school bus to school. Originally, i started out wanting to do special ed and everyone told me i was crazy. They said teaching wasn't a good career to get into. I never let that get me down. i've always just had a heart for kids and i knew teaching is what i wanted to do. after i graduated high school i went back and became a teacher at the summer camp and fell in love with teaching even more. that's when i realized i wanted to teach kindergarten. i now work in the after school program with kids from age four to sixteen and as a teachers assistant for the preschool class. It has grown my love for teaching and kids even more. i'm so excited i've chosen this career path. I look forward to help growing the minds of kids.