Sonya Akers

I've been in education for 21 years, and it's been my main career path from the beginning. I started as a science teacher because I had a real passion for teaching science and was inspired by previous teachers I had when I was in school. Over the years, I've worked in many different roles - classroom teacher, instructional coach, campus administrator, parent family liaison, cheer sponsor, and grade-level sponsor. Now I'm the campus principal of a charter school here in the Houston area, where I've been for 5 years. I manage the daily operations of the campus, work with teachers and coach them, build our name in the community, and build relationships with our families and scholars. We're a pre-K through 8 campus, so I get to see students grow up over the years. What I love most about my job is seeing the students grow and having those aha moments. I've been in education so long that I've seen my students go from younger ages all the way to adulthood - they're married, they have their own children, and some of them are now educators themselves. The accomplishment I'm most proud of is when I was an instructional coach, really growing my teachers and working with them, seeing them become successful in the classroom and watching the strategies I instilled in them translate into their instruction and student performance.