Texas Elementary Teacher Honored By School Where She Formerly Worked as Custodian
An Texas elementary school teacher has been recognized for hard work and perseverance from working as a custodian through her current position as a first-grade educator.
Wanda Smith works at Brenham Elementary School in east-central Texas has been honored during Teacher Appreciation Week.
Before Smith became a teacher at the Brenham Elementary, she was staff member working from 6 a.m. as a bus monitor, then 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. as a custodian. Although completing college was always on her mind, she was focused on supporting her family.
“My plans were to go straight into college, but then my mother got sick and so those dreams had to be deferred and I just got a job and started providing for the family,” she said.
Then in 2004 at 37-years-old, Smith was encouraged by her husband, Darron Smith, to pursue her associate’s degree at Blinn College, a junior college in Brenham. Instead of stopping at that point, she enrolled at Sam Houston State in 2005 to pursue a bachelor’s degree.
Smith’s journey was almost sidetracked after the deaths of her mother and two sisters, which she said made her consider quitting. “I was so happy to tell them that I was going back to school. They were so proud of me,” she said through tears. “My sister would be the one I would talk to at night when I was coming home. Then when I lost her, that took a lot out of me. It took a lot out. And yes, I did want to stop.”
Then her husband stepped in to encourage her again, and she decided to keep going. “My husband, he sat me down, and he let me know that I wasn’t the only one that made sacrifices. And so I was like, ‘OK, I can do this. I can keep going.’”
In 2010, Smith graduated from Sam Houston State University with her bachelor’s degree and then became a teacher.
During the pandemic, Smith went above and beyond to ensure her students had access to the best education possible by hand-delivering work packets to their homes. This was to ensure her students with single parents working long hours who couldn’t pick up the work up from school wouldn’t have to worry about falling behind.
Smith was taken aback when her colleagues were joined by the “Today” show to spotlight her achievements and continuous impact. “When I stand in front of my classroom, that in itself, MY classroom, I am living my dream,” she said during the interview.
“Wanda Smith is the portrait of an American teacher,” Brenham Elementary School Principal Kim Rocka said. “She’s such an inspiration to us all.”
The beloved teacher was presented with a number of surprises that left her emotional on her special day. Dr. Alisa White, the president of her Sam Houston State alma mater, created The Wanda Smith Make a Difference Scholarship, a $500 scholarship in her honor that will be gifted to a first-generation Sam Houston State student looking to pursue a teaching career.
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