Daniel Huynh: President's Educator Fellowship

Master of Arts in Teaching Single Subject Candidate Daniel Huynh has received the 2017-2018 President's Educator Fellowship, presented by Sue Vaughn on November 7, 2017.

About Daniel Huynh

I owe my love of science to Bill Nye the Science Guy, but I owe my start to teaching to my Youth Group. Each Sunday, for the past 16 years, I devote my day and effort into spending time with the organization because they only gather once a week. As one of the Group Leads within the organization, in addition to watching over the 300 members that attend weekly, I carry the responsibility of interacting with the adolescent members and teaching them lessons about their heritage, morals, values, and leadership skills. 

Each week, I bring in a new lesson to teach, whether this is from my life experiences, things I see on the internet, etc., to hopefully spark new insight and inspire the members to become better people. Teaching these members (and teaching for the first time, really) introduced me to what it is like to be a teacher and what it’s like to educate and to inspire students. Interacting with the members for only once a week and seeing how much of a positive impact I have on their lives not only gives me a greater purpose to what I do as a Group Leader, but it solidifies my purpose as an educator. 

Simply put, my goal as a teacher is to motivate my students be good people, on top of everything. To me, good morals and personal values are as important as academics. I want to inspire and empower my students to be a positive influence on the people around them, so that once they step outside of the classroom, they too can empower and inspire. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how much money have you. If you’re kind and understanding, you’ll go far in life. I was raised with that mentality, and I want to instill that mindset upon my students.