Ellen Degeneres grants the wishes of many guests who appear on her show who are doing good for their community so when she heard about Ashlyn from Georgia she had to have her and her husband on the show. This 24 year old occupational therapist in the Georgia school system who works with special needs kids is doing wonderful things for her students. The area that she works in is has one of the highest levels of poverty not only in just the state, but in the whole nation.
To put it in perspective, so many kids qualify for free and reduced school lunch, the entire county has just put every student free and reduced school lunch.
During the summer, the school even has a system for delivering food and lunches to the same students that can’t afford a school lunch.
The teacher is so focused on doing the best for her students and making sure that they have someone that they know cares about them, she tries to give back 10% of her salary to them whenever she can. Whether it’s making brownies and snacks to bring to her classroom or buying tools to help individual students learn better, she does it. Ashlyn doesn’t even live in Brantley County. She lives about 30 minutes away in a nearby town with her husband and 2 dogs.
“I know that I could have worked anywhere, probably gotten a better salary, but I mean these kids make it so worthwhile. ” she says of her situation.
What caught Ellen’s attention most about this teacher in particular, is that Ashlyn is only 24 years old. Fresh out of college and into the workplace she is set on changing young people’s lives, no matter how it affects her.
Ellen sums it up perfectly.
Ellen says,”At 24 years old to have that- to know that it feels better to give and to help somebody, at 24, when most people are thinking about themselves is number one amazing, and then to take 10 percent of your income, which is already reduced because you choose to work at that school is really incredible.”
Ashlyn shares her dreams for the future.
Naturally the conversation slid into what Ashlyn’s dreams are for the school district which was of course technology. Obviously working in a school district like Brantley, it’s hard to get the learning tools that teachers need to help make their students successful. Nowadays, if you were to walk into most elementary schools, every student has an iPad or computer that they run and work on individually, but there’s nothing like that at Brantley, even though some special needs students need it.
This giving teacher is in for a wonderful surprise.
It’s no secret that when Ellen sees a need for something, she does something about it. A few moments later, she brings out her assistant Andy with a display of five brand new iPads. By the look on Ashlyn’s face, its clear that she wasn’t expecting that.
But the surprise doesn’t stop there.
Ellen tells this wonderful teacher to swipe across the iPad screens for an even bigger surprise that brings her to tears. This young school teacher was changing lives before, but after this, she’s sure to be a teacher that students won’t forget.
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