An Interview with My Mentor
As part of the ACTE Fellowship program, we are all assigned a mentor. I have the pleasure of having Monica Brisbon as my mentor this year. She was a member of the 2017 Fellows class and she really enjoyed the experience. When asked about the upcoming National Policy Seminar, she stated that she “really enjoyed NPS. The workshops…in advocacy were great. The actual experience talking to legislators was EPIC!” This was great for me to hear as I prepare for my first visit to NPS in about three weeks
Monica currently serves as a Business Education teacher at Carolina Forest High School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She graduated from Coastal Carolina University with a double major in Management and Marketing. She also received an MBA from Webster University and an Ed.S. in Educational Leadership from Arkansas State University. She has been teaching for 10 years and is National Board Certified. Prior to teaching, Monica held prestigious business positions at WPDE, a local television station, and AVX, an electronics manufacturer. She considered teaching after substituting for a few months and enjoying the opportunity to spend more time with her young daughter. She was hired at Carolina Forest in 2006. Monica’s next goal is to move into Administration, and she would ultimately “love to become a Director of a CTE Center or District CTE Director.” After talking with her, I am sure she will reach her goal one day soon!
Monica tells me that she loves the opportunity to teach and bring her real-world experiences to her students. She would not do anything different as of now, although her original goal in college did not have her becoming an educator.
Just as many of us who have been in education for awhile have seen, Monica has noticed the changes that have occurred in CTE over the years. For example, Family and Consumer Science classes were once very popular but have been phased out over the years even though the skills taught in them are often essential life skills. She’s also noticed that a major challenge is keeping up-to-date resources to run successful programs, provide work-based learning opportunities for students, and offer professional development to teachers. As Monica states, “all of these do have funding as a common issue. There are so many opportunities for CTE teachers to network and learn about the world of CTE but the funding for staff development is limited and CTE funds are not allowed to pay for subs which has been an issue… It does take money to run successful programs and provide students with meaningful experiences.”
I am grateful to have Monica as my mentor this year. She is very nice and offers great advice. Unfortunately, she will not be able to attend NPS this year so I will miss the opportunity to meet her there, but there will be other opportunities. I hope everyone’s experience with interviewing their mentor has been as great as mine has been.