Teachers come and go over our four years of high school, making it rare to bond with them let alone trust them enough to open up about our lives. This is even harder because these teachers have many classes, equaling many students. It’s difficult for teachers as well as they don’t usually have a lot of free time to spare.

For me personally, I would always struggle to talk to my teachers, I was an ani-social person, always keeping to myself and not trying to form a bond with them. This all changed when I entered my sophomore year of high school and met my Chemistry teacher Ms. Kumar. 

Anjali Sara Kumar grew up as a shy introverted person and when she grew up she was the type to be scared to do a presentation in class. She stated that if she could go back and tell herself something she would say “You are capable of being a lot more extroverted, outgoing, and confident than you realize and there’s a point in your life where you will really get to see that for yourself.”

When was deciding her career she didn’t know she wanted to be a teacher, it came to her spontaneously. After becoming an undergraduate she still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do and she happened to take interest in teaching, “I believe it was the best place for me to grow as a professional at that time of my life” she said. Her inspiration on becoming a teacher came from her family, more specifically her grandparents and her uncle. Three out of four of her grandparents were teachers in India and her uncle is a professor of Computer Science at a CSU. 

She believes that she made the right decision. She stated that as a new teacher she focused a lot on forming bonds with all her students as well as forming bonds between the students. She hopes to keep encouraging her future students to do the same. As well as make an impact in their lives. Hearing more of her background and what she also struggled with helped me connect more with her.

Ms. Kumar is already successful with her goal as she has impacted my life for the better. I would always struggle with my anxiety attacks and she was one of the only teachers willing to help me. She helped me learn new ways to cope with it and overall she was always there for me when I needed to talk. She not only made a huge difference in my life but she also impacted other people’s lives as well.

I interviewed a couple students on how Ms. Kumar has impacted their lives. She might have impacted some more than others but even then she still impacted their lives and changed some of their mindsets. For example, I interviewed a student who had her as well and they stated that they always were comfortable with how they identified and their sexuality but having a teacher who embraced everyone’s individuality made them feel even more comfortable and open about it.

Ms. Kumar always tried to make us feel the most welcome in her classroom and in the school in general. “She always made learning fun and it was always nice coming to her class knowing she was kind and patient with her students,” said another one of her students.

She not only had a personal impact on students but also an academic one. I’ve heard from a lot of people that they don’t like chemistry because of how difficult it is, but “as the cool teacher she is she made a difficult subject people don’t like learning easier for us even though she was fairly new at teaching,” said yet another one of her students.

Overall, most of the students she taught said basically the same thing, that she is an amazing, fun, caring, and mindful teacher.

She is an amazing teacher who clearly enjoys her job and is happy to help her students. We all agreed that we need more teachers like that and we are all glad that we were lucky enough to have her as our teacher. We hope she continues to change other people’s lives the same way she changed ours and whether it’s a small impact or a big impact we will know she truly cares about each and every one of her students.

I am personally very thankful for Ms. Kumar, and I appreciate her being open with me about her past and for letting me interview her. She deserves to be recognized for all she has done for all of her students.