Laina Jones, TEP '02

Facts:

Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, Laina found her love of teaching at an early age. While in high school at Hopkins School, she wasintroduced to Summerbridge, a program that pairs high school and college-age students' work with underserved middle school students to teach them the academic skills (run at the time by Michele Pierce, Ed.M.'95), where she found her "passion for wanting to be a child advocate."

As a psychology and education major at Spelman College, Laina nurtured her passion for child advocacy through research, teaching assistant volunteer jobs, and other field experiences. In a short time, that passion blossomed into a desire to teach and serve as a school administrator. At TEP, Laina found her firsthand classroom experiences very rewarding. "I had never been exposed to the classroom in the fashion to make me love it the way I did during my TEP student teaching experience. Harvard allowed me to practice all of the wisdom I found in high school and college. TEP forced me to put the theory that I learned in class into practice daily. I will now be prepared to continue on into administration and child advocacy one day, as I have always dreamed, with the insight of a well-taught classroom."

Inside Scoop:

"Me, teach in Boston?!" I laughed at that thought. Boston was supposed to be a one-year stop on my perfectly planned life blueprint so cleverly designed at the oh-so-wise age of 18. But after a year in graduate school, I found myself staying in Boston to teach at the Harbor School. There has not been one day since that I have regretted my decision."

"My favorite part of TEP was making lifelong connections, and building lasting relationships with people who have the same passion about education. From professors to classmates, TEP was my arena to find others in the world who know that teaching is not merely a job, it is unequivocally the most honorable career that needs to be nurtured through good preparatory programs. No matter what, I know I can always count on my TEP family."

"I affect young people through wisdom, words, experiences, trust, smiles, and unconditional love and respect for my students. A good teacher knows all of these qualities are a priority. I not only teach my sixth graders a subject, but I teach them how to learn. This will impact their world for the rest of their lives. My life as a teacher means being superwoman to students who need, want, and deserve my attention. I have taken on the role of teacher, mentor, advisor, listener, caretaker, guide, surrogate mother, big sister, and shoulder to lean on...and I love every day of it.