Who is your Agime?

“Mr. Miekley, I can’t believe the semester has gone by so fast!” Agime said with a few tears in her eyes.

We were in a coffee shop in downtown Prishtina. Agime and a few other university students and I were reviewing the semester together–Grant Proposals. Resumes. Present-perfect versus Past Simple. We had come so far from the first day of class! We had learned so much. And now were were near the end.  

I told each of them how they had made a valuable contribution to our course during the past year. The semester was over. My work as an instructor was done. 

But I had no idea what Agime would do after the course was completed!

This was the end of the beginning of her professional career!

The summer following this course, she returned to her hometown and joined hands with a local NGO to help teens prepare their resumes. She submitted a grant proposal and won an award at an international conference.

So teachers, who is your Agime? That is, who is one of your students that you have that goes above and beyond what you expect? One of the great things about teaching is that you don’t know. Any of students sitting across the desk from you during your one-on-one meetings could go way above and beyond your expectations in the weeks, months and years!