Northwest helps Earley build relationships, fulfill goal of teaching career

Dec. 9, 2022 | By Edidiong Idong-Bassey, communication assistant

Faith Earley has known she wanted to be a teacher since the first grade. Now she’s making that goal a reality after graduating Friday from Northwest Missouri State University.

“This is what I’ve wanted to do literally my whole life,” she said. “I know that this is where I’m meant to be. I feel like the thing that keeps me going is just knowing how much I’m helping young kids. My favorite part of teaching is watching the light bulbs go off when they finally understand something that you’ve been teaching them.”

Earley, a native of Blue Springs, Missouri, visited Northwest for the first time for a campus tour. After experiencing the University’s welcoming environment and interacting with faculty in the School of Education, she made the decision to pursue her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education at Northwest.

“That’s when I could totally see myself here,” Earley said. “I remember the professors really pushing and being like ‘We really care about our students and want to support you.’ I thought that was a great concept and learned that it was definitely true.”

Faith Earley (Photo by Lauren Adams/Northwest Missouri State University)

Earley admits she had a difficult time adjusting to college life as a freshman, but the support of her peers and School of Education faculty, including Dr. Rebecca Moore and Dr. Sandra Seipel, helped her get involved with student organizations and make connections. 

Earley gained career-based experience as a peer advisor with Associate Professor of Geography Dr. Brett Chloupek. She also served on the Homecoming Committee, was an active member of Order of Omega and served as the Phi Mu sorority’s new member educator assistant.

Through those experiences – as well as during her student teaching experience in Lee’s Summit, Missouri – Earley learned the value of building trusting relationships with others.

“Relationships are the most important things that I carried over from Northwest’s practicums into my student teaching,” Earley said. “Students don’t learn from people they don’t like. It’s going to take longer to build a relationship, but you have to keep trying until you have that foundation.”

With her bachelor’s degree completed, Earley has accepted a long-term substitute teaching position at in the Lee’s Summit R-7 District School and plans to advance her education in Northwest’s online Master of Science program in educational leadership.

“One of the hardest parts of leaving Northwest has been leaving all those friends and all those people that I met because I think Northwest is super cool,” she said.