Though she flirted with becoming a rock star, a doctor or a lawyer, Jess Murray, of Groton, Conn., has always known deep down that she wanted to teach.

“Teaching is always No. 1. It’s the job I know I want, and that I know I would do for free,” says Jess, an Honors Program student majoring in elementary education. “It’s exciting for me to go to class and say, “What am I going to learn today?’ That’s what I want to give to my students.”

She didn’t have to wait to get into the classroom – students are required to begin observing classes and helping teachers in the community beginning their first semester.

“When you first walk into your first classroom, you’re so nervous – ‘Did I dress OK, is the teacher going to like me, are kids going to think I’m weird?’ Then, after a while, you get more confident to use your voice, to shout and get silly with the kids,” she says.

Initially she wanted to teach higher elementary grades, but being exposed to a first-grade classroom changed her mind.

“I love the looks on the children’s faces. Everything is new and so exciting,” she says. “It was so great to watch the kids (to see) how they absorb it like a sponge. It was surprising to me how much the teacher was able to do.”

Jess keeps busy outside the classroom, too. She belongs to Coordinators of Activities & Programming Events, is president of the Young Educators Society (the YES club) and is a member of the Dean’s Council, a group of students that acts as ambassadors for the school and helps at school events. She also works in the Curriculum Resource Room, a learning lab for School of Education students.

“It feels right to be here,” she says of SNHU. “You come onto the campus and you feel so comfortable. You just click and you know right away this is the place I want to be.”