I want to thank the Academy...

A friend of mine, David Stein, recently wrote a tribute to his favorite high school teacher.  I was fortunate enough to have a good amount of teachers that taught the fundamentals, but the ones that I still remember are the ones whose enthusiasm just bubbled out of them.  People that are passionate about what they do have helped push me to follow my own passions, and I'm so glad to have come across them.  So, thanks to Dave's reminder, I'd like to thank the following people:

Mrs. Pfiefer, who in the 6th grade once wrote on a progress report, "I fully expect to see Jennifer's name on a book jacket someday"

Pamela Stanescu, who taught my AP US History class back at Warner Robins High School.  Once, during a school bomb threat that evacuated all the buildings to a nearby parking lot, she actually gathered our class around her and kept teaching.  Other classes were milling around just killing time, but there we were, listening to her every word because she knew how to make it come alive.  I still remember "the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ration of 16:1."

Rachel Moore, who was technically an english professor at Baylor, but taught much more than that.  

David Sturgill, my favorite computer science prof at Baylor during my undergrad years when I had him for an OS class.  He knew his stuff, and (unlike a lot of profs) could effectively teach it too.

Gina Green, who has taken me under her wing as we collaborate on everything from grant writing to a custom CRM for nonprofits.

Betsy Willis, who threw me into the deep end of accounting this past summer, but whose teacher style got me back into the swing of things after 10 years away from the classroom.

I've recently been elected to serve as the MSIS rep for the Graduate Business Association (which is easy to accomplish when you're unopposed :)  ), and if I had to give a tearful acceptance speech (minus an interruption from Kanye West), it'd have been a lot like this.