Work Projects

AESA Executive in Residence Experience

Executive in Residence Award

This past school year of learning with current and future executive directors across the nation has been a great experience for my growth as a leader! Without going into a lot of detail on the specific activities and processes, I was able to meet multiple times throughout the year with education and industry professional on various leadership topics that you don’t get in your formal education training. The conversations focused around real-world scenarios and topics that only experience can truly provide.

In September, the group was able to join other education leaders in Washington D.C. to visit elected officials and their staff to talk through the great things, and some of the concerns, that we are happening in the state of Texas. Feeling heard and having a voice to share on behalf of the schools and their students was pretty powerful!

Then in March, I was blessed to be able to spend an entire one-week residence at an ESA (ESC in Texas) in Wisconsin. Shadowing the executive director and meeting with leadership of each individual program throughout the week gave me a great insight into how others work within their state. I brought back a lot of ideas to share with our team and was proud to share some of the great things we are doing here at ESC Region 11.

The final meeting took place at the Summer Leadership Conference where I not only was recognized for my participation in the cohort, but I was also selected to present a session to the entire attending body versus a breakout with only a select few. I felt honored to be part of such a great group of educators and will learn back on this experience as my careers continues to grow and move forward.

McMurry Outstanding Alumni Award

Outstanding Alumni Award

I know this one is going on my professional work and personal store categories, so I am going to continue to type in my own words while trying to keep it more professional in nature. As excited as I am to share this, trying to keep it professional is going to be hard!

I received a call while attending a Ponder High School baseball game one evening from McMurry University. I have had several conversations with them over the years regarding football, as this was my identity to most around campus for the 4 years I attended. However, this time the call was different. It was from a director on the academic of the house.

The person on the other end of the line proceeded to tell me that I had been nominated and chosen for my work that I had done in the field of education, and that I would be receiving the “Outstanding Alumni Award for Education” at their Night of Distinction banquet in October. My mouth slightly dropped and then a sense of “this is why I do what I do” came over me. To clarify, I don’t do it for the recognition. I do my work in this field to make a difference in the lives of our future…the kids!

The night was great! It was such an honor to be sharing the stage with other alumni from their various career fields. I guess they remembered me going a little over on my Hall of Honor speech for football back in 2018 because they chose to cut out the speeches for these awards. Guess I educated them on that part too. 😉

Doing What It Takes

Equipment pass out.

What a past few weeks it has been! We came off the STEAM Carnival, moved into a new building (for 1 day), and then everyone was sent home to work remotely during the COVID lockdown. All that said, school has continued forward, and work doesn’t stop!

To assist our staff members in their roles of supporting schools, I decided to adjust my role and do what it takes to keep work moving. I set up a form that our folks could submit a request to get their equipment needs met and started walking around the ESC (by myself per the guidelines) and collecting their items. This ranged from monitor, phone, cables, etc. to this particular folder, book, and stack of papers. We scheduled pick up times, and I marched it out to their cars to ensure that they could keep working.

There are times when you might need to drop your title, position, or job description expectations and focus on that very bottom bullet that says, “Other duties as assigned.” Even though this was not an assigned duty, it was one that I chose to assign myself because I knew it was the right thing to help our staff and schools. I didn’t miss meetings or conference calls, but I did roll up my sleeves and did whatever it took to make it happen.