 At Horace Mann, we applaud educators' dedication to teaching excellence, ensuring all students receive a quality education. We believe in helping educators find solutions to help them achieve financial success, to live better and retire happier. That's why we proudly sponsor the NEA Foundation Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence to honor educators selected by their peers for their professional excellence and dedication to their students. Please join me in congratulating and honoring the five individuals who are this year's Horace Mann Award recipients. So everyone gets their own virtual reality goggles. We're going to follow a different woman's story, but it has a wonderful imagery of Rwanda. My relationship to Ms. Jelke, she was my teacher at EnglishFord, which is ELL English English Language Learner. She is a huge advocate of all students. Her passion of right now is working with our new American population. If I feel like the language is too hard, I can't pronounce this word, she's just always there to encourage me. She also speaks Spanish, so it was really good for me because I could talk to her. I've had a wide range of experiences teaching. I was able to teach at a boarding school in Taiwan, a private school in Ecuador. Because of those experiences, I'm able to understand what it's like to live in a new country. I don't have my parents here, so Ms. Jelke, she becomes your mentor, your mother, your sister. She actually cares about who you are, your life story. She will listen to you. I heard gunshots coming from the outside. I was sleeping, and my mom and my sister. In Egypt, and then I moved to the United States here in 2012. At first it was just an assignment that our student handed in. I came with my stepdad, my mom, and my pets. Once I started reading these amazing stories, I just had to share them. So I created Journey to America. With this project, students write a story about how they came to the United States with the help of college students. So they come in and help our students with grammar, spelling, and punctuation. She really doesn't see the classroom as where she does all of her teaching. When those kids tell their stories, they're telling them in public, and that's another thing that she does well. She has formed partnerships with North Dakota State University and Concordia College in Minnesota to provide spaces for these kids. Now I'm speaking to a lot of audience, I'm not afraid to extend them and say what I have to say. I think it's important for my students to share their stories. It's very therapeutic for them. It's also how the community learns about our new neighbors and friends. These are my friends. When people know more about each other, they are more likely to interact, they're more likely to have a positive attitude toward each other. She just made me realize that I can inspire people. With my story, to do great in the community, get involved, volunteer into staff. So to kick off our journey to America unit, we have a special guest. He's a survivor of their blood, genocide, and immigrated. Bringing in speakers from the community or from around the United States that have had similar experiences to my students. I want to maintain your home because things do get better. And now they are successful CEOs of their own companies. Being with others and mentoring, this is the kind of inspiration that I want to provide for my students. She's trying to direct you and be a successful person because she really wants to see the best out of you. Cool. She's just so great to have someone to be right next to you to look up to and all that. One of the most important things we need to do with our students is meet their basic needs. If their basic needs of feeling loved and cared for is met, they can do anything.