Life as I Know It

Before beginning this assessment, I knew that where I am now is very different from where I once was. Growing up in a rural neighborhood and with my immediate family lent the very early part of my life to be very mono-cultural. 

In spite of experiences at home, I have spent time overseas in different areas of the world.  Several of my summers since grade school were spent outside the US in countries.  This expanded my cultural experiences overseas but within the country, my experiences were still very white. 

My first full-time job was at Strong Hospital as a cardiac technician and phlebotomist.  I cared for people of all nationalities, backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life—the diversity of this job was one of my greatest joys and while there was a huge element of culture shock in the beginning, but my years there taught me more about different kinds of people than I had learned in a lifetime thus far.

In spite of growing up rather mono-culturally in terms of races and religious beliefs, I spent time working with individuals with disabilities as a high school and college student which help shaped the direction that I wanted to go with my career.  My love of working with individuals with disabilities is what originally led me to pursue a teaching position at BOCES. 

I can only hope that I will be able to continue to grow as the experiences and life-lessons I have amongst my peers continue to challenge me to be better person and teacher.

--Ruthie B.