Educator of the Week – Young
Northeast Middle School math teacher Katrina Young admits she can be a tough educator. “I’m going to stay onto you if I know you can do this,” said Young. “Don’t get mad because I’m fussing. I’m fussing because I see the potential. I know that something great is there.” Young says she sees something in each of her students. “I want my students to realize they are somebody, and that they can be anything they want to be, as long as they want it,” said Young. “I tell them everyday, ‘You’re a star, look like it. You’re somebody, you’re not something that walks down the hall. You’re somebody, show me you’re somebody.'” Young uses personal experience to guide them. “I tell them, I’ve been there. I remember what it was like being in middle school. I know what my kids went through. These are the mistakes we made, these are the successes we had, these are the things you can have as well,” said Young. This educator hopes to give back to her students what she was given by former teachers and family. “The time they spent, the education they helped me get,” said Young. “My grandaddy always told me that education is something that nobody can take away – that it doesn’t matter what happens in your life, as long as you get your education, you can go anywhere.” That includes high school and beyond. “When you get your diploma, no one can ever say, ‘Oh, you didn’t graduate high school.’ – ‘Yes I did.’ When you go to college, and you get that diploma and walk that line, you have a college education that no one – losing a job, a divorce – nothing can take it away from you,” said Young. “Life’s not easy, but with an education it makes it a lot easier and we can be the people we were meant to be.”
