The NIU College of Education recognized spring graduates of licensure programs May 12 during the New Teacher Send-off event in Cavan Auditorium.
NIU alumna Kimberly Radostits, the 2022 Illinois Teacher of the Year and a 2023 National Teacher of the Year finalist, delivered the keynote address.
Radostits, who earned her B.A. Spanish Language and Literature in 2007, told the almost-graduates that teaching “is a journey.”
With that comes “a built-in reset button at the end of every school year,” she said, “where we get a chance to pause, recharge, reflect and reinvent pieces of ourselves.”
She also listed her three hopes for the future teachers.
“First, be an avid traveler of schools and an open-door teacher. As teachers, the learning ins never done. Take advantage of learning from the people around you, and allow them to learn from you,” she said. “Second, invest in your passions outside of school. You never know how your passions outside of school will help you connect to a student”
And “finally, whatever it is that has you getting into the profession – whatever your purpose – hang on to that. If you can center your career around a love for students and your why, I can promise you that it will make it all worth it.”
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