Cohort 8

Taylar Price

Master of Education in Elementary Education

Jackson, Mississippi

Taylar strives to see the world through loving eyes each and every day.

Taylar grew up in the small south central city of Beloit, WI and was eager to see how college could change her future. The passion of accessing higher education came full circle when she was selected by her 3rd grade teacher to interview for a pre-college program for low income 4th - 12th grade students called the Beloit College Help Yourself Program. With hard work and dedication, she utilized the program to find comfort in pursuing a secondary education.

After completing 5 years of college in May of 2017, she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Communication and Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Price was then able to utilize her degree to be accepted in her first competitive AmeriCorp program. She began her journey as a teacher after finishing two terms of AmeriCorps service with a private non-profit organization called College Possible, an organization that helps low-income first generation access and succeed in college.

Following the completion of her terms of service, Price found her way into teaching after a former classmate reached out to her for the opportunity. A 3rd grade classroom ignited her flame to pursue her future as a continuing educator. In her first year of teaching, she was met with the challenge of maintaining a classroom during the pandemic. With the challenges that came that school year and the year that followed, the flame never died down.

In her second year of teaching she chose to take on her second application for the very competitive and prestigious AmeriCorps program, Teach For America, which began her journey to Jackson, Mississippi. Price was then offered a position at Johnson Elementary School as a 2nd grade teacher and excitedly accepted the offer. Through a handful of personal and professional setbacks, Price chose to take on every opportunity to grow and become a better teacher and grow to enjoy the new state and city. Price is currently a Teach For America alumni, still teaching at Johnson, but now as a PreK Lead teacher and PreK team lead.

When asked why she became and is still a teacher, Price looks back at her childhood when the most stable environment was her schooling, and education was the way to make it out of her familial instability. “I want to be a safe space for students to come to, relax, and enjoy being in school. When years down the road, my former students still reach out about the positive role model I was for them”, Price reflects. The hope she has for her PreK students is to enjoy the beginning of their educational journey and want to keep going to school. Price wants to help students know that getting an education is a beneficial experience that can change their future.

Currently a DSU TFA Graduate Fellow, Taylar is pursuing her Masters in Elementary Education. She will be working on a Social Entrepreneurship project while in the fellows program focusing on increasing physical activity for the students at Johnson Elementary as a means to build communication, teamwork skills and increasing student enjoyment

Fun fact: Taylar has a proclamation day on August 16, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin called Taylar Price Day for winning the 2019 Idealistic Leader of the Year for her work at College Possible-Milwaukee.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
— Maya Angelou

Harrison Wood