November 27, 2019 | UHCL Staff
Ashley Shed did not think job fairs were a place where you actually got hired. Shed, who is graduating in a few weeks from University of Houston-Clear Lake with her Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with Early Childhood-6 Certification, planned to attend a job fair earlier in November and simply distribute her resume to school districts, then go home and wait to be contacted.
“That’s not what happened at this job fair,” she said. “I had quite a 30 minutes.”
She said she arrived early to the job fair at University of Houston and waited in the lobby. “A lady started talking to me just because I was sitting there, and it turned out she worked in human resources at Channelview Independent School District,” she said. “She then spoke with the principal at McMullan Elementary School. I got hired as a kindergarten teacher on the spot! I am so excited.”
Shed said she decided to be a teacher back in middle school, when she had an inspirational math teacher in sixth and seventh grade. “That teacher was emotionally supportive of me because she knew I had some problems at home and she didn’t make me feel singled out,” Shed said. “She was just there for me, and that’s what I want to bring to the kids in my classroom.”
As a single parent of three children, Shed said that completing her education had not been easy. “I had my oldest child when I was 18, then another at 19. It was hard having two kids so young, and it was really hard to keep up with school while keeping an income to support the kids by myself,” she said. She had worked many years as a server in a restaurant, but had to stop school because it was too difficult. In the meantime, she became the mother of a now-3-year-old daughter as well.
She finally graduated from San Jacinto College after eight years, then enrolled at UH-Clear Lake. “(Associate Professors of Curriculum and Instruction) Debra Shulsky and Sandra Browning helped me through,” she said. “(Director of the Center for Professional Development of Teachers) Kelly Ann Moore talked me into staying in school, because I was about to stop. She motivated me to keep going. I needed people to push me because I was almost there, but without them, I wouldn’t have made it.”
The best thing she learned at UHCL, she said, was differentiating instruction to fit all students’ needs. “Every professor taught this in a different way, and it all came together,” she said.
For others who are struggling with the decision to stay in college, Shed said, just take one step at a time. “You can do it,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I did ask for a lot of support and I got it from my professors. I let them know what was going on in my life, and once I did, it helped me get through. It only took me 2½ years to get through UHCL, and I know I will remain supported through the Kappa Delta Pi program.”
Kappa Delta Pi, she explained, is an international honor society for educators. “It offers a great support system, and I’ll also go through the Teacher Induction Ceremony at UHCL. My professors will stay in touch with me in my first year of teaching,” she said.
As for job fairs, Shed said she’s now a believer. “I never knew anyone who actually got hired at the job fair, but it happened to me,” she said. “I highly recommend going. I was so happy, I cried. I have a job now, I’ve signed a contract. My life has changed.”
Read more about UHCL’s College of Education online.
