‘This Must Be the Journey for Me’: Georgia Teacher Finds Her Dream Job 6 Minutes from Home
Published: | by Alex Skov
For her final project in her very first semester of college, Amanda Ashour was supposed to explain why she’d be a good teacher.
Instead, she wrote about why the world would be better off if she wasn’t a teacher at all.
Ashour had grown up wanting to teach and pictured herself leading middle school history lessons someday, but when she found herself working in a real classroom as a college freshman, the experience knocked the wind out of her.
“I quickly realized, ‘I’m not ready for this,'” she said.
A program filled with unkind peers added to her anxiety, so she left the school — and her teaching dreams — behind. It would take two master’s degrees, a national economic collapse, and nearly two decades of life experience before she found her way back to her calling.
A Winding Road Back to the Classroom
Ashour transferred to another university and earned her undergraduate degree in English literature.
“I joked it was a BA in unemployment,” she said, “because it sounds great and they tell you all the things about what you can do with that degree, but the reality is, when you don’t have a very specific focus, it’s not as easy.”
So she got specific, completing a master’s program in English literature plus another in library science and archives, records management, and preservation.
Meanwhile, the Great Recession hit.
“All the jobs I thought would finally be available to me vanished overnight,” she said.
Out of roughly 300 people graduating from her program, only one had landed a job in the field. It wasn’t Ashour.
She returned to her hometown and went back to bagging groceries at the same store she’d worked at as an undergraduate. Feeling like she was “floundering,” she applied for other jobs and landed a position at a small library. Eventually, her professional connections helped her secure a contract position at the Pennsylvania State Archives. She loved it and was finally putting her degrees to use.
But archives work is solitary, and it left Ashour wanting more human connection. She reached back and remembered her dream of working in education, leading her to take on a part-time role teaching writing at a college while her husband finished his Ph.D.
Amanda Ashour and her husband.
At the time, Ashour’s husband was having difficulty finding a job without an advanced degree. As a non-native English speaker teaching college-level English, worthwhile opportunities were hard to come by, despite his fluency. When the family moved south hoping for better luck in the job market, Ashour found another role as a college adjunct, but found herself “working around the clock” without a Ph.D. of her own.
One day, when her son was in kindergarten, he got tired of hearing “hold on, mommy’s busy.”
“He let out this exasperated sigh and put his hands on his hips, and he said, ‘You’re always busy, and it’s never just a minute,'” Ashour said.
It shifted her perspective.
“I thought, ‘I can pause my job, but I can’t pause him.'”
She took a couple years off work, cherishing the time she spent with her son.
Then COVID-19 struck.
‘I’m Not Leaving Here Without a Job’
As the pandemic dragged on, Ashour found part-time work, but she needed a more reliable income source. Her mother had a suggestion: Go back to teaching, this time at a K-12 public school.
Ashour was hesitant, especially because she didn’t have a Georgia teaching certificate. But her mom reminded her that she had not one but two master’s degrees, reassuring Ashour that she was capable and could do challenging things.
Ashour decided to start as a substitute, but a friend who was already teaching urged her to apply for a full-time position. Feeling inspired, she started submitting applications on a Saturday and signed up for a job fair the following week. By Monday, she had two interviews lined up.
When Ashour showed up to the job fair, she saw that her first interview was with the school her son would be attending that fall — just six minutes from her house. It felt like fate, and it confirmed Ashour’s mindset: “I’m not leaving here without a job.”
She got the offer before the morning was over, and her hiring was official within a week of applying.
“It felt like, ‘If everything falls into place, this must be the journey for me,'” she said.
Amanda Ashour and her son stand at the head of her classroom.
Finding Moreland
Ashour began working with a provisional license, giving her three years to complete an Educator Preparation Program (EPP). The district offered its own program, but acceptance wasn’t guaranteed, and Ashour didn’t want to be stuck waiting, so she researched other options.
That’s when she found Moreland University and talked to an admissions rep who was “so friendly and helpful and encouraging.” They also told her she could start EPP coursework soon, so she wouldn’t have to worry about falling behind her certification timeline. In fact, with the TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program‘s 9-month, 100% online format, Ashour could finish the program before she’d even need to show proof of enrollment for her next contract renewal.
Ashour quickly began completing coursework and applying the lessons in her own classroom.
“With Moreland, I was learning things that I could immediately put into practice,” she said. “That was helpful and useful.”
Ashour worked on assignments in the evening after her son went to bed, bonding with her cohort members as they moved through the program together.
Not long into her clinical learning (student teaching) module, Ashour found out she had cancer. Her field experience supervisor worked with her on deadlines, and Ashour completed her student teaching while undergoing successful treatment.
“Everyone that I met in the program — from the initial person who took my call, to the instructors, to the field experience coordinators, to my cohort — they were so supportive,” she said.
Ashour earned her teaching certification the day before her birthday, exactly one year after she’d started the program.
“That was just one of the greatest full circle moments. This is something that I’ve wanted to do since 7th grade, and here I am,” she said. “I took a really weird, long path to get here, but I’m doing it. I’m literally living my dream.”
Ready to make your teaching dreams come true? Earn your teaching certification in as little as 9 months with Moreland University’s TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program — fully accredited, 100% online, with rolling admissions and monthly start dates. Once you finish, you can add on a master’s degree in just 3 additional months.
Apply for free (it only takes about 15 minutes), and you’ll hear back within 2 business days.
