LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Nadia Ismail was nominated anonymously.

Three attributes that describe Nadia: *Generous: with her time, her knowledge, her resources, herself *Highly Intelligent and believes all children have greatness within them and just need to nurture them and that intelligence will emerge *Committed and Creative: Committed 100% to everything she does and Creative in her process and approach, she finds a way to make even the most daunting tasks possible Ms. Nadia Ismail is a problem solver, a thinker and a doer, a rare combination.

 She mentors staff and guides students. As such, she is sought after by students, staff, and parents because they know Nadia takes pride in doing all things with excellence. Her roles are many: teacher, college advisor, and administrator. But you will also find her shampooing a rug, programming technology, or drilling a broken bookshelf for a teacher so it gets done in a timely manner. She is highly intelligent yet extremely humble. Nadia believes in the potential of every student, and she will do almost anything to help that potential shine.

Nadia is the definition of going above and beyond. She will come in on days off or on weekends to help a student learn the content or drive a group of students hours away to attend a college fair or competition. She will scour the world to locate a specialized curriculum that is modified for a student with more learning needs. She spends her free time and weekends finding resources and programs to enhance the learning experience of all students. Although she teaches and counsels junior high and high school students, she still finds time to bring extracurricular programs for our elementary students, ranging from STEAM to Soccer. She believes deeply in the power of girls and young women to excel in the sciences and STEM.

To foster their love of science, she has introduced, advised, and mentored science clubs, robotics competitions, established partnerships with national laboratories, and set up career mentors. When students were interested in technology, she started a coding club and then offered a coding class. She is responsive to students' requests and tries to find something for everyone. Ms. Nadia had the exceptional challenge of supporting refugees who came to our school as amputees and with no ability to communicate in English. Nadia found ELL resources, gave of her time daily to teach them English and even took online courses to better meet the needs of these few students. She is also known for her extremely personalized letters of recommendation. Her letters are known to be exceptional in their description of the unique strengths of every student. They are often pages long and show her commitment to knowing and highlighting the best in every student. The phrase "above and beyond" is made for Ms. Nadia! Her sincere care and desire for every child to get what they need is what makes her stand out as a true LifeChanger.