MERCEDES — “You were born to teach.”
Apropos given strong-albeit-uncertain inklings, the aforementioned complement from Lisa Ashley’s college professor served as the proverbial switch that powered her ambitions early on.
Now 53, Lisa looks back at her time attending Crown College — a private Christian school in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota — as the experience that cemented her aspirations to be an educator.
Serving as the journalism and public speaking teacher for the Science Academy of South Texas, also known as Sci Tech, Lisa draws from such experiences to be an asset in the classroom, where she too hopes to inspire young minds.
“I know there are others who do that, but some of them consider teaching a job where they can get summers off; this is my life and I take it with me every day,” she said on Friday, initially referring to her instruction approach as one that is more accommodating of students than stifling.
“I try to treat my students the way I wanted to be treated when I was in high school,” she added. “I wanted my teachers to know that I knew the material, and I wanted them to know that I was capable, and I wanted them to know when there was something I was afraid of learning and to be encouraged to do it anyway. So now when I have students who come to me because they’re afraid to give a speech, I understand that and I’m able to empathize with them.”
The Weslaco resident and Des Moines, Iowa native was first exposed to her profession back in high school, where she took journalism classes and joined the newspaper and yearbook staffs. In college, she worked toward her degrees — bachelors in Magazine Journalism and Secondary Education English — and impressed professors with her mock lessons.
It was in 1993 when a 29-year-old Lisa, then a college graduate, attended a job fair in St. Paul. Perhaps it was by chance that South Texas ISD was on-hand for the event and recruited Lisa to be a yearbook teacher, a post in which she’s overseen the publication of 24 yearbooks at Sci Tech.
“Journalism wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, so I started asking around,” she recalled of her beginnings. “I was a camp counselor for 10 years during this time and liked working with teenagers, and then the light bulb went off … this is exactly what I should be doing and this is exactly where I should be.”
Looking back on her career, Lisa is happy to hear of former students who’ve either went on to become journalists or serve in public speaking capacities — one such individual even landed a job with Apple and works for iTunes.
“They’re all over the world,” she said of her former students. “Often times I get emails from them thanking me for teaching them speaking skills, because they use it every day in their job. That’s a source of inspiration to keep my standards high.”
