PAYING IT FORWARD
» Dajuan Rudolph
Rising Star
Education was her key to better life,
so student looks to pay it forward
D
ajuan Rudolph shines. With a brilliant smile
and poise despite wielding an apparently
heavy backpack, she warmly shakes my
hand as we meet in person for the first time on the
steps of the Taylor Education Building.
I’m there to take her photo, catching up with her
in a rare free moment between classes. Smartly
dressed, she looks ready to step in front of a
classroom. A year from now, the 21-year-old’s
plan is to do exactly that as an elementary teacher,
either in a kindergarten class or, she’s now starting
to think, third grade. When she speaks, she sounds
ready. Eager. Motivated.
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No matter which grade level she teaches, she wants
to reach children for whom she can be a positive
role model and help change the trajectory of their
lives the way a pair of teachers changed hers.
“I hope they know that they are my heroes and my
angels here on earth,” Rudolph says. “It’s teachers
like them I aspire to be like – teachers who have
passion for teaching and educating, who really care
about not only their students’ education but their
health and their future. I am working to adopt those
characteristics by learning all I can about education
and how I can be effective in the classroom. I go
to class every day and I engage myself. Maybe one
day I can change a student’s life like they changed
mine.”