Stephanie Desormeaux, 46, believes that teaching is in her blood. “I feel like its cliche saying I believe I was born to teach, but it is true.”

She first taught during her summers off in high school. “Instrumental music was a pastime in high school and I taught music lessons to the younger students in the summers. I enjoyed working with younger children and seeing joy in their faces when they discovered something.”

She graduated from Upper Sandusky (Ohio) High School. After graduating, she took college classes periodically between 1994 and 2001, moving to Louisiana in 1996. “Life happened preventing me from finishing my degree,” she said.

Desormeaux’s love of teaching was reintroduced to her in 2006 while she was the office manager for Northwestern Mutual in Lake Charles. “Part of my role was working with prospective financial representatives and interns for careers and internships,” she explained. “I was heavily involved in the role of teaching and mentoring their development. Their success sparked my passion to do what I do every day.”

In 2006, she went back to school and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in  management. “I thought ‘why stop there, I’ll get my master’s degree.’” After making this decision, she earned her Master of Arts in Teaching in 2010. She is still in school, and is currently only one course away from receiving her Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

She has now taught for eight years. Her first two years of teaching were at the Jeff Davis Parish School Board, where she taught high school business education courses. She then moved to Lake Charles Charter Academy to teach seventh grade math where she has been for six years.

She has come to love seeing students get a solid grasp on mathematical concepts. “I enjoy seeing the ah-ha moment in math when a skill is achieved,” she said. “Math is a challenge for many and it’s amazing to have students come back after several years and say, ‘I actually like math now.’”

Desormeaux’s philosophy is to foster a love of learning in her students. “Students believe in themselves as much as I believe in them, and to foster a passion in students to never want to stop learning,” she said.

Curating this love encourages students to learn life-long skills, she said. “Preparing students for the real world with skills is something I valued as a student, and I want to instill the same in my students.”

She has a deep connection with all of her students. “They are not just my students they are sons and daughters, grandchildren, athletes, musicians, artists and more.”

Her relationships with her students help her learn to be creative. “My students help me think outside the box and find ways to make learning relevant and spark curiosity for them.

In this spirit, Desormeaux introduced the inaugural “Let’s ‘Glow’ with Math Day” this year. “The students practiced skills learned so far this year and everything was neon and glowed in the room during class,” she said. The success of the event was “a teacher’s dream,”  with “100 percent participation and engagement.”

Her advice for current and future teachers is to show yourself and your students mercy, and to always be open to learning. “Teaching middle school never has a day that is the same,” she explained. “Be patient with yourself. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have the results you expected.”

“Ask questions, try something new and learn from it. Never stop learning.”