Career Goal and My Leadership Goals

I am very fortunate to have reached my goal for my career position that I would be pursuing.  The spring that I applied to be principal at Midway High School, I also applied to the Baylor Doctoral program.  I feel passionate that as a leader, I need to model skills for the staff that will be meaningful.  I want all teachers to be life-long learners and I felt the best way for me to model this desire is to pursue my doctoral degree.  Within the Baylor Doctorate program, there was not an elective area that I felt would help me grow within my job better than the superintendent program.  Because Baylor did not have those courses, I pursued them at Lamar University.  I feel extremely blessed to work at one of the greatest high schools in the state of Texas with a strong group of teachers that have a big heart for their students, and with a group of students that I would compare to any students in the State of Texas.  They are just such a great group of young men and young women.  I felt like my 4 years as an assistant principal, 2 years as a director in Human Resources, 2 years as an associate principal and 2 years as a campus principal in another district all led me to a place that I was prepared to take the position of principal at Midway High School.  I think each of these positions gave me experiences and pressures that helped prepare me to be the leader of a campus.  Each of them were extremely different but gave me many experiences that make the role of campus principal one that I feel extremely prepared. 

My opportunity to influence the lives of all students was very limited while serving as a teacher and coach. I felt that we have students that walk the halls of so many high schools and never experience a connection to that campus.  My goal as an assistant principal, associate principal and then principal was to help students find their connections to the campus and have a richer high school experience.  I have always encouraged students to get involved since I was an assistant principal and will continue that desire until I leave education.  So my hope as a leader would that every student of Midway High School would find their niche at the campus by being involved in a club, organization or activity.  I truly believe that students will have greater success if they are involved and have a greater purpose of their time at school.  And if the students have this greater purpose, it will motivate them to achieve more academically, be more caring to their fellow classmates, and make decisions that will keep them out of any trouble.  Helping students is why I go to work each day because it helps me and I feel called to this purpose.  I feel blessed that I get to be around the best students every day but there are those that still can experience Midway if they will find their connection.