Meet “Ms. Mayes”

The Sisyphean task of aspiring to excellence is not torturing. I lean into the discomfort of knowing it is a perpetual goal. There is room to improve in every success and much to learn in every failure. Teach for America challenged its corps members to confront educational inequity for two years. I committed to three more years of teaching. In the early years of my service, I was far from accomplished. In my first year as a corps member, I was one of four teachers in my school to exceed growth among my students. It was great, but it happened only in my classroom. People, systems, and even teachers tend to flatten a teacher’s function. I have organized leadership and career conferences for my students, family nights to inform parents how to better collaborate with teachers and access information, clothing closets for addressing basic needs to foster better student outcomes, published curriculum units using pedagogical research, and more.

I have learned support, change, and the development of organizations is crucial to their success. The most fulfilling part of my career as an educator has been as a change agent. I improved access, created and facilitated high growth and opportunities. The joy I feel from empowering the school community- students, parents, colleagues, and leaders have led me to an MS in Management. Business transformation and streamlining business processes and efficiency is my next goal. In October of 2021, I accepted an offer in Talent Transformation as a Senior Business Consultant upon graduation. It is my objective to be a leader in my field. This is a reflection of my thoughts from my time in the classroom and a documentation of my journey to Corporate America so that others can see, learn, and explore the path I cut to transition from teacher to future business leader.