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Why Do You Do It?

"I send my sincerest thanks for your dedication to a profession that is critically important to our success as a nation." — SenatorRichard Blumenthal (CT)

This week, our new Milken Educators weren’t the only ones to get a pleasant surprise.  Here at the Milken Family Foundation, we received a letter from U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) to let us know that the Foundation and the Milken Educator Awards in specific were honored on the Senate floor and entered into the Congressional Record.  In the record, Senator Blumenthal states:

“With the Milken Educator Award, we acknowledge our Nation’s dedicated educators who are not usually spotlighted but conscientiously work to help turn ideas, thoughts, and questions into interests, passions, and projects.”

We’re grateful to Senator Blumenthal, as he not only praised our efforts, but reinforced why we do what we do: to acknowledge the educators—more than 2,500 of you thus far.  We’re proud of our contributions to the profession and the professionals of education, but recipients certainly couldn’t have planned on this award.  So why do you, the educators, do it?  What drives you to get up every morning and say “I’m going to change a child’s future today”?

On Monday, we shined our spotlight on a bright Diamond from (a) Little Rock.  Zsuzsanna Diamond of Little Rock, Arkansas, to be precise.  National Institute for Excellence in Teaching President and CEO Dr. Gary Stark (AR ’01) set the stage and then turned it over to Arkansas Governor Beebe to announce Arkansas’s Milken Educator Award Recipient.  In her impromptu acceptance speech, Zsuzsanna cited a quote on her resume that speaks directly to her raison d'être for teaching: to matter by being “important in the life of a child." See the full quote in all its poignancy on YouTube.

While you’re on our YouTube channel, watch how Pamela Yau Smith of Homewood, Alabama reacted when she got a Halloween trick and an incredible treat.  Pamela was quick to use this platform to tell the students of Edgewood Elementary to follow their passions and “do great things in the world.”  Indeed, Pamela has clearly found her passion and, by impacting the lives of 700 students on a near-daily basis, she is doing great things for the future of these children, and the world that they will do great things in.

We’d love to hear about your passions in teaching and why you do what you do.  Please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter where you can also get updates throughout the week; and subscribe to our YouTube for the latest surprise videos!

Sincerely
Boris Kievsky
Editor, Online Communications and Engagement

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