As an educator at West Virginia State University, I have taken tremendous pride in working in my professional development to grow my knowledge. I firmly believe in being a 'lifelong learner.' For example, I have over eighty PDUs, and for an exemplary demonstration of my dedication, I have completed and obtained recognition within the National Society of Leadership and Success; in this honor society, I have completed professional certificates that will translate to four academic college credits when I graduate. On April 29th, 2022, and December 1st, 2024, I had the great honor and pleasure of earning the first-ever Advanced Leadership Certification and even furthering my education by also being the first student to earn the Executive Certification within the National Society of Leadership and Success at West Virginia State University. This national honor society taught me the great values I placed in my leadership toolbox that works with team building and project management! I also attended The Level Up NSLS Leadership Summit in 2022, having earned eight hours of professional development as I collaborated with students nationwide in workshops working with data-driven decision-making, social-emotional learning, communications and team-building skills, which had us in cooperative learning situations; I developed networks across the country and learned skills of micromanagement. The NSLS at WVSU has been one of my most significant accomplishments as I look at my time at WVSU because there was no active student leadership in the student organization, there was no President, only an Advisor, and I took the task to try and revive and turn it around to have a presence on campus. I enjoyed doing our activities with our members on campus to create a better environment at the college, and we did this through the work we did with the community service events.

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Another professional development I take great pride in participating in that makes me unique from any teacher candidate is completing two years (four semesters of Peer Education) at WVSU! Achieving this has allowed me to be the first student at WVSU to obtain the Peer Education Professional Certificate to be issued upon graduation on my diploma for being a Certified Peer Educator in Peer Education. This not only to me signifies my devoting abilities to want to mentor my peers through personal experiences, but it shows my elite dedication to providing the services in my community and on campus that are required in obtaining the four semesters of Peer Education, which includes going into the First Year Experience Classes on campus and speaking to students about the most challenging discussions of drinking, rape, drug misuse, and eventually leading to the bystander interventions training course, which I have taught four semesters I should now have this engrained in my mind, a bystander can be anyone that is around an action or event and watches as a standard, but the active standard are the ones that act, either positive or negative depending on the actions taken. We trained college students to take action and not allow them to bully others, pressure friends to drink or follow a set of undesired behaviors that we know are immoral, with consequences that may be potentially harmful.

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Being a member of the CHOICES Peer Educators has allowed me to extend my knowledge of recovery and behaviors in society. It has also improved my active listening skills and ability to be an effective leader and solicitor of events to provide information to those seeking assistance. I have received countless required hours and certificates in training courses, from TIPS training, QPR Suicide Prevention Training, Fentenal Administration Training, Bystander Interventions Training, SmarterRx Training, and the NASPA Peer Education National Certification process. These all have relevance in the area in which I live, and some communities the students come from see many issues like these, and it is helpful to be aware and have the background knowledge to build more relevant valuable solutions to make connections in life to situations with students and situations they may experience. I have had family members who have committed suicide and friends, and this is not easy to deal with, so I am passionate about ensuring that we have Social Emotional Support to help students and adults in our communities with sensitive topics dealing with mental health topics and recovery. I support Red Ribbon Week in our schools and openly support drug prevention and ways to support awareness in our communities for seeking help and not to shame, breaking the stigmas and finding help for our loved ones.

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As a member of the CHOICES Peer Educators, I had the opportunity to continue my leadership training as I had an all-paid trip of a lifetime to the S.A.F.E. Project's Collegiate Recover Leadership Academy Summit in 2023, which was held in Washington, D.C.! I was chosen alongside fifty other students across this country and Canada to participate in workshops that taught us about Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and diversity training with Khadi A. Oluwatoyin, the creator of Sober Black Girls Club, a nationally popular community for recovery. We tackled our inner "Sam" with Rosi Greenberg in her workshop and her book "Everyone Has a Sam: Meeting the Inner Critic and Re-Writing Its Rules." As members of the 2023-2024 CLRA from S.A.F.E. Projects, we met in four webinars from 2023 to 2024. We created an impact project on our campus and community to "Stop the Addition Fatality Epidemic."

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My project was called "Yellow Jackets Swarm to Support," it was a new, innovative way to bring awareness and resources through a bulletin board and a student-created, student-centered area on campus to attract attention to help inform and provide help to those who may need assistance. This included a student-created support bench painted by another education department student, Destiny Markowski, with two donated original paintings to tend the bench upon the finished works. The original plan has yet to be fulfilled, but the bench and artwork are ready, and purchasing a charging station and brochure stand will soon complete this project! I met with members across this campus with leadership for approval from deans to safety teams. I held many conferences with the WVSU Counselor Kelley Toledo to ensure the project was up to the ideals and vision of the Counseling and Wellness Center of WVSU. Not only was my project a new adaptation of envisioning something any school could easily do, but it was also innovative and had possibilities for easy expansion with the use of technology with a tablet and a kiosk, which I asked for funding to make this student-centered area more of a welcomed area to bring awareness while breaking the stigmas associated with recover and mental health issues. This is my legacy project at WVSU, and it will be of great use and purpose as soon as it is finished!