LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Jill Brooks was nominated by her colleague, Dedi Boyer.

Have you ever met someone that makes you say to yourself, "WOW,"? Ms. Brooks has done just that, not only to her colleagues, but to the many, many students who she teaches science to. Ms. Brooks is known as a campus celebrity. The high school students who had her in middle school love to visit her every day because she made such an impact on them. Even if they don't love science, they have learned to appreciate the subject, and they definitely love school! That's because Ms. Brooks takes time to care. She is passionate about what she does, who she does it for, why she does it, and how she does it. The craziest thing about her is that the passion she puts into teaching looks effortless!

Ms. Brooks is as authentic as they come. She truly loves everything about science, and she genuinely loves her students - the good, the bad, the indifferent. Ms. Brooks gets through even the hardest of heads. She makes learning fun, interesting, and engaging, and she speaks to students at their level. There is no need for fluff, over-the-top vocabulary, or boring texts. Ms. Brooks keeps science age-appropriate, and her students want to learn more and come to class every day.

"As her colleague, I enjoy relearning science," said Boyer. "It's presented in ways that if I were a student all over again, I would be fully committed to absorbing the subject like a sponge!"

Ms. Brooks is more that an educator. She provides life skills to her students. She guides them through any problems they have outside the subject of science, such as peer pressure, life's potholes, relationships with friends, etc. Ms. Brooks is the beacon of light we all need to keep us on course toward good-decision making. She offers a listening ear when one becomes too set in one's way to see other perspectives. She knows what to say and how to say it to get her students and peers to be flexible in team projects, making individual decisions, and everything in between. With Ms. Brooks, there is a logical science to everything besides organisms and atoms. 

Ms. Brooks corrects students on occasion who have said and done things that did not portray them in the most flattering light. She'll take the time to pull that person aside one-on-one and ask them why they behaved that way. She'll continue to ask them if what they did was the best thing to do in that situation. Ms. Brooks produces a dialogue with students so they can re-enact what they did and see that their actions were not the best choice. Then, she has the students recreate what they should have done instead to re-enforce making the right choice for future reference. Taking that kind of time with a student to teach positive future outcomes is more valuable than gold.

"There is so much I could say about Ms. Brooks," said Boyer. "She is a humanitarian, an animal lover, and the most authentic person I have ever met and known. She is an asset to education, an asset to each and every school district that is fortunate enough to have her, and an asset to every student who has the pleasure of having her placed in their path. The world is a better place because Ms. Brooks is in it."