Peggy Campbell- Rush

I think definitely my parents. It's one of those things where I really, you know, they instilled with me great values, but also our mantra for our family is that we don't give up 5 minutes before the prize, so we stick with everything. I tell my kids all the time that that's it, and the reason why is because most people give up after the first try, and our family never does. If it's right, you just keep trying and trying and trying.

People kept telling me I had to apply to be a leader, that I had those qualities, so it was people that believed in me. That encouragement from others who saw leadership potential in me helped me take the step out of the classroom and into administration for the second half of my career.

I think it's a really hard time to be a teacher because the pay is so poor. All three of my children have had to have second jobs, you know, so it's a really tough time. Also, we as a nation have to honor teachers more, and it's really quite a shame that we don't. But if that's your passion, it's like getting up every day - you just put the child first and go with it. It's great. I loved teaching. If you're going up the ladder into leadership, you have to be very balanced. You can't get too high, and you can't get too low. People compliment me all the time, okay, that's great, but I don't live for that, because I know who I am. So then I don't get too low when people are judging me in a mean way either. You have to really have a balance in your personality that you know who you are, and you stay true to that. People rely on you for your strengths, because I think research tells us that 95% of humankind are followers, and so people are looking for a strong leader, and they want to be led by someone who has integrity.

I think family, for sure. And then I guess being a great educator, you know, my passion and value system for that. For sure integrity and honesty, and you know, being in administration, you have to be very confidential, too, so I hold that in high esteem, you know, that if people tell you something, that you don't go and blab it anywhere else. You have to have that integrity and value system really entrenched in you. As an administrator, you have to make decisions, and then people question it, but you can't tell them the backstory because it's confidential. But you still have to make the decision that's for the school or the child, and that's really hard, because you stand in judgment of other people who think it might have been wrong or different, they would have done something different, but you knew the backstory, but you can't say it.