Kimberly Ann Swedberg

When I was younger and in school, I wasn't a great student - I was okay, but I struggled and had to study hard. I had a teacher who told me that I would never amount to anything, and that really drove me. I thought, 'I'm gonna prove to you that you're wrong.' Obviously my parents were very supportive, especially my dad being in education, and their support was tremendous. But I think having that said to me - which should never happen to anybody, and I always tell my students when I'm doing teacher training to never say that to anybody - that probably drove me. You can think it, but don't ever say it. If you tell me I can't do it, I'm gonna do it just to show you that I can.

I think that you need to find the thing that you're passionate about, find the thing that makes you excited to get up in the morning and do, and pursue that. Don't let people tell you you can't do something. Try it. If it's important to you, try it. If it doesn't work, that's okay - there might be a different direction you need to take. I tell my girls that all the time: whatever you're passionate about, whatever drives you, whatever excites you, do that, and do that with your whole heart. And then that might change. When I was beginning out as a special ed teacher, I never would have thought I would be in Africa working with elephants, but things can change, and that's okay, and things can evolve. But when you do something, do it because you love it, not just to get a paycheck, because then you'll burn out very quickly.

The biggest challenge right now is fundraising and trying to find the right audience, the right people that would support the work. I feel like there's so much out there - there's so many scams, and there's so much fake stuff right now - that it's hard for people to know what's real. As they should be, they're cautious, but that also means that it's harder to find donations, and it's harder to support different organizations, because you never know if it's real.

I think my faith, my Christian beliefs and values probably drive me more than anything. Just trying to be honest and be a good person - to have morals, and to have ethics, and to treat people with kindness, and to understand that everybody has a fight that we don't know about, we don't see it. And so, just trying to love people and help them to become the best that they can be. I think my faith has just helped me to see that.