CONWAY, Ark. — Susanna Post drove from her home in Fort Smith to meet with our very own Craig O'Neill at UCA, but her journey back to education was lot a lot longer than that.
Starting from the top: Susanna graduates college and she moves to Texas, where despite her math and computer degrees, she was somehow unable to get the teaching job that she desired.
With her classroom aspirations on hold, Susanna went to work in the oil and gas industry as a senior petroleum analyst.
"The Christmas bonuses, they were pretty incredible. Just that part of it," she said laughing.
But there was a big problem. While, she made a lot of money, that wasn't her passion.
"You can go out into the business world and make big money, and I did. I was making money but I was not making a difference," she said.
This urge to make a difference is what caused her to move back home to Fort Smith, where she eventually became a math teacher at Belle Point Alternative School.
This school is where kids in Fort Smith go when they're kicked out of their regular school. This is exactly where Susanna knew she needed to be.
"Hoping that you are a small part in maybe changing the trajectory of their path in that moment, it's powerful," she said.
Belle Pointe's project based learning deepened her empathy for her students.
"It was this beautiful marriage of the two where I was getting to know my students through their project design," she said.
But, for Susanna it went deeper and her passion for her students showed each day beyond the classroom.
"It was going to places where my students were living life and that meant going to their games," she said.
It also meant at times going to the jail to visit a student as well.
"I went enough that actually one time they let me go to the back and sit down and have lunch with one of my students," she said.
through the empathy and the solidarity with students she became what she calls, a warm demander
"I have found that students are so drawn to warmth and high expectations from a teacher," she said.
Arkansas took notice as Susanna was named the state's 2021- 2022 teacher of the year.
Over the last year she has traveled the state, sharing a concept she hit upon while at teacher development the empathy gap.
"So we have to build relationships. We have to know their stories," she said.
By developing empathy first, educators have a better chance of closing opportunity and achievement gaps. It's something that she applies each day in her classroom.
"We have to know each kid," she said.
As teacher of the year, Susanna got to visit places like space camp
where she bonded with other teachers of the year. In the process, she learned another valuable lesson.
"The community approach to education is the only way that we really are going to address the gaps that we've gotten to with these kids," she said.
During the teachers' visit to the White House and speech by First Lady Dr Jill Biden, Susanna is given a gift bag with a bell.
This bell was symbolic of the first lady's early beginning in education when she got to ring the bell for her teacher and grandmother.
"She connected that not only to her inspiration to be an educator but to our efforts during the pandemic," she said.
Attached to that same bell is a message.
"She says never stop ringing your bell, never forget that the lives you change go on to change the world student by student you perform miracles every day," she said.