Linda Dodson always wanted to be a teacher. "I had a natural ability to tell people what I knew," she remembers. "I was also one of those kids who loved school - I liked all my classes and liked my teachers." Growing up on a Claysburg-area dairy farm, Dodson attended Claysburg-Kimmel High School and went on to four years at Penn State for her Bachelor of Science in secondary education and then went back to school for her Master's degree from St. Francis. She's been teaching math at Everett Area High School for the past 18 years, typically guiding about 100 students a semester through classes such as Algebra and Consumer Math. She says she likes feeling she's making a difference in her students' lives."One good comment from a student or a graduate makes the job worthwhile," she says. She recently had a student earn a perfect 800 score on the math portion of the Scholastic Achievement Test and a second student earn a near-perfect 780. "As a teacher you can go through your whole career without having a single student make those kinds of scores. I think it's a reflection on the entire department and our overall commitment to our kids at Everett."

She encourages others to follow her into the profession. "If you're a student and think you might be interested in teaching, I'd suggest you ask to prepare a lesson for one of your classes or volunteer to help one of your teachers - find a mentor among the faculty. I've had a number of students practice teaching with me and they've found it valuable," she says. She also suggests that high school students in the county take advantage of Allegany College of Maryland's Bedford Center Early College program to get a head-start on college credits. "College will never be as inexpensive as it is in this program," she says. "It can make a big difference, and I've seen some students earn almost a year of college credit hours while still in high school, which can be a big plus as they pursue their degrees."

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