If there is one word that describes Mary Thompson, it’s passion.

And it is that passion that she wants to bring to the classroom as an elementary school teacher upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from DePaul University’s College of Education.

“Nothing makes me feel like I do like when I’m in a classroom,” Thompson said. “I just don’t have a passion for anything but teaching.”

Thompson’s mother instilled a thirst for learning in her while she was growing up in Elmwood Park. “She made education exciting. She made it cool to learn.”

Through her elementary schooling, Thompson was inspired by her teachers and their excitement for knowledge, “so much so that I was a bookworm,” she said. At Elk Grove High School, she began to notice that some of her classmates were struggling with the curriculum. She realized then that there had been discrepancies between her early education and theirs.

“It dawned on me how important a strong foundation is,” she said. “I now wanted to make a difference.

“The education system is all too often seen as a machine, characterized by numbers and statistics,” Thompson said. “It is essential to realize and remember that the numbers start and belong to an individual child. This child is why I want to teach.”

Frank Tavano, one of her instructors in the College of Education, said Thompson exemplifies “the best of the best” because of her hard work and dedication to the profession. “Mary’s personality sets her apart from other students. She is gregarious and highly positive. She is a respectful and fun individual to be around.”

Thompson said she loved having Tavano as a professor. “He encompasses what it is to be a passionate teacher,” she said. “It’s not something he tries to do. He just is a passionate teacher, and you can feel that when he’s teaching you. It makes you want to teach your students like that.”

While in the education program at DePaul, Thompson said, “you truly become part of a family: a family of lifelong learners filled with compassion, devotion, patience, a sense of humor and, of course, lots and lots of lesson plans.”

Thompson believes her DePaul education uniquely prepared her for teaching thanks to small class sizes and the plethora of teaching experiences in clinicals. “I was in at least 15 schools around the city while at DePaul,” both Chicago Public Schools and private schools.

“I would have to say that the most important thing I learned at DePaul is to go out into the world and dare to make a difference,” Thompson said. “This is especially true as a new educator. I was able to find my confidence as a teacher through the examples of my professors. I not only look up to them because they are my mentors, but because they all represent what I want to be as a teacher: passionate and inspirational.”

Thompson said she hopes to unlock the “excited learner” within all students. “It is my motivation to help find and develop that future doctor, politician and teacher. Seeing a student understand something new for the first time is inspiration in its purest form. Nothing is better than a classroom filled with mental light bulbs and ‘ah-ha’ moments,” she said.

Thompson said she will consider herself a success if she makes a difference in her students’ lives.

“If at the end of my career I can look back and say that I helped shape students’ lives, that I did my best and that I started each day with a smile, then I will have accomplished my goal as a teacher,” she said. “In both my career and education, I use the motto that I tell my students, ‘They say the sky’s the limit … but there are footprints on the moon.’”

Written by Deborah Snow Humiston