 Mary Fertrell never thought she'd be the president of the National Education Association, or the dean of a school of education at a major university. But she did achieve those things, and so much more. Hearing some of her story where she came from and how education transformed her life underscores her passion and continuing advocacy for public education. I grew up in Virginia in Lynchburg, and I attended segregated schools. And I had teachers who really pushed me to learn. My family was very poor. My father had died when I was four years old. My mother workers are made. And a lot of people probably didn't think I would ever graduate from high school. But my teachers really pushed me, and they refused to allow me to give up on myself. I applied to be an academic program, and they decided that I should be in the vocational program because I probably would never go to college. And back in those days, believe it or not, there was a statewide test. And I took the test along with my colleagues, and I came out in the top 10%. And that was in the 10th grade, but then they put me in an academic program. And at the end of my 12th year, I figured I'm not going to go to college, but my teachers kept pushing me to go to college, go to college, and I applied for a scholarship at my school, but I didn't get it. And I remember one of the teachers came and talked to me, and he didn't teach me, but he said to me, I want you to know you're not going to get the scholarship because they feel that you won't go to college, and if you go, you won't stay. And so they gave the scholarship to one of my friends who ended up becoming a lawyer. But my teachers who taught me went out into the community, and they said, we have a young lady, we would like to send her to college, but her family doesn't have the money, and we would like to raise money to send her to school. But nobody told my mother, but they didn't tell me. So the night I graduated from high school, they said, we have a special scholarship we want to give. And I'm looking around at all my colleagues because I'm assuming they're going to get the scholarship, and they called my name. And so I got that scholarship with only about $1,500. I got on the bus and went to Virginia State University, okay, college at that time, now university. And I majored in education because I wanted to give back to the profession and give back to those who had given so much to me. And so I decided to become a teacher because of the way the teachers had done my high school and lunch break made a difference in my life. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of other children as well. So I came to Alexandria, Virginia, started teaching, and again, segregated school. And two years later, they desegregated, and I was one of the teachers that they moved to the white school. And I taught in Alexandria for about 17 years, became active in the teachers organization at this local level, the state level, and then at the national level. Ended up becoming Secretary of Treasure of NEA, and then the president. So I went before the delegate assembly as president, and in my speech, I asked them to give money to the NEA Foundation. And so what I asked them to do, I said, for every member of this organization, we can give $1. And for every dollar we give, we should contribute it to the foundation. And then the foundation can use that to help teachers to develop their creative ideas, the way to improve public education. And they approved that back, and I believe it was 1988 or 1989. And it's still in existence today. My point was teachers have a lot of ideas. Teachers have a lot of creativity, but they usually don't have the resources to develop those ideas or those strategies. Can we provide support for them? And I also wanted to make sure we are supporting public education. And what can we do to improve the quality of education that we provide for the children who attend our schools? It sounds like you really paved a path for a lot of people. Well, I would say my teachers made a big difference. And I tried to emulate what they did. I tried to give back, because one of the things they taught us was to give back to the community. And education is all about how do we use our skills and our knowledge and our abilities to make the world a better place on which to live. What do you suggest people do to stay positive? Well, I think you stay positive by believing in yourself. You don't let somebody tell you that you can't learn and that you should stay back just because of your situation. You can change your situation. And I think our children need more encouragement. They need more inspiration. They need to believe in themselves and to value themselves. And they need to understand education can transform you. I didn't just say change. Education can transform who you are, what you are, and who you will become. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you can't learn. Just because you're a minority just means you can't learn. Just because you got a disability or you're a female or what. That doesn't mean you can learn. You want to learn, you can learn, and you have to be inspired to learn. And the kids have to see it can make a difference. Yes, there are a lot of kids out here like Mara Futral. Poor minority, white, black, brown, but we shouldn't judge them because of their economic situation. They can learn and they will learn if we support them and if we educate them.