I was having lunch one day, when a colleague entered the teacher's lounge looking quite frustrated. He suddenly burst out "Have you ever wondered how you got here?", and I nearly choked on my sandwich. He continued, "I mean, is this your dream job? What did you want to do?" Faced with a question I hadn't asked myself in three years, I thought about the path that brought me to that teacher's room...

I grew up in Westwood, Massachusetts along with two sisters and two Boston Public School teachers as parents. I loved computers, sports, writing, and art. I dreamt of playing soccer for the University of Notre Dame, and believed I would be a "writer or an artist." When I graduated from Westwood High School, I had been rejected from Notre Dame, on crutches from a soccer injury, and enrolling as a computer-science major at Fairfield University.

My dreams seemed to be losing to reality. I could shape my dreams easily, but could I shape my reality to what I wanted as well?

I transferred to Notre Dame after my freshman year, won championships with my dorm's soccer team, and enrolled in art classes despite a heavy engineering course load. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a concentration in design from the College of Arts & Letters. Now, what did I want to do for the rest of my life? I started my own freelance web business, LKR design. Programming sounded profitable and the internet industry was buzzing.

I returned to Boston and became a web designer for an e-learning company founded out of M.I.T. during the boom of startup internet businesses. It was a small company that built online courses and developed course-building software. I was able to wear many hats there including that of webmaster, programmer, marketing assistant, and graphic designer. Eventually, as was typical of that era in the history of the internet, business lagged and the company downsized. After September 11th, 2001occurred, I remember sitting in my cubicle and wondering, "How did I get here?!", and more importantly, "How do I get out of here?!" I knew then that I wanted to do something more meaningful to me and to others than just building web pages and making business cards. But what? I volunteered at the Girls Get Connected Conference provided by TechBoston, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed teaching web design to middle school girls. I assisted teaching a programming class at the Harvard Extension School and began to miss being in a classroom more regularly.

Three weeks after being laid off, I walked into TechBoston's new pilot school in Brighton, TechBoston Academy, as its walls were being painted, and was hired on the spot to teach the 9th grade Introduction to Web Development class. Not too long afterwards, I was hired by a non-profit organization called WiredWoods to manage their year-round programming. As Manager of Year-round Programs ( June, 2003 - July, 2005 ), I taught the WiredWoods curriculum to middle and high school students, trained teachers to lead WiredWoods afterschool and summer programs, and supported WiredWoods programs in the Greater Boston and surrounding areas.

After three years at TechBoston Academy and with WiredWoods, I have found myself fully immersed in the non-profit sector, freshly challenged by my role as an educator, and finally fulfilled with a meaningful career. The transition was difficult and at times discouraging, but those memorable teaching moments make it worth the growing pains. Every school year, I have improved in my instruction, classroom management, staff support, and curriculum development, but especially since I have been enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts in Educational Technologies at Harvard University's School of Continuing Education. I will be licensed as an Instructional Technology Specialist in June 2006, and I plan on completing the program's Masters degree the following year. I continue to grow as a teacher, mentor, and innovator in technologies in education.

So I swallowed my sandwich, and smiled. "No, I never dreamed I would be here," I said, "But I know I belong here right now. There's so much to do! " And I packed up my things and headed back to the classroom.

- LKR

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me get here - Mary Skipper, Dr. Ann Koufman-Frederick, Dana White, Dr. Catalina Laserna, Pam Whitehouse, Sue Cusack, Bob Thomas, Mary Teixeira, Dad, Mom, and especially all of the students I have worked with. Thank you!