Letting her Life Speak Jesus into her Students

Letting her Life Speak Jesus into her Students

2014 CIU MAT graduate La Shonna Bookert

CIU alumna La Shonna Bookert is a kindergarten teacher in Columbia, South Carolina

Meet CIU Alumna La Shonna Bookert

La Shonna Bookert says Columbia International University thoroughly prepared her to be a successful teacher of young children. And it shows.

Bookert is “Center Stage,” featured in an employee profile by the Richland One School District in Columbia, South Carolina. She graduated from CIU with a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in 2014 and is now a kindergarten teacher at Carver-Lyon Elementary School.

Bookert says at CIU she learned how to effectively address the physical, cognitive, and social/emotionally needs of young learners, but there was more.

“My studies also helped me learn to see students the way that Jesus would want me to see them and to learn how to meet their spiritually needs,” Bookert said in an email.

“Even though I teach in a public school setting, I try to let my life speak Jesus to my students,” Bookert added. “I may be the only Jesus my students are exposed to, so my prayer each morning is that I will be led by the Holy Spirit to help my students to see the Christ in me – to see His love in me; to see his patience in me; to see his graciousness in me; to see His joy in me.”  

Bookert says her personal motto is that each day she not only teach her students, but reach her students.

“My prayer is that I make a positive difference in the life of at least one child each day,” she added.

See La Shonna Bookert “Center Stage” in this employee profile.

Find out how you can become a teacher like La Shonna. Ask about CIU’s Master of Arts in Teaching program at (800) 777-2227 or yesciu@ciu.edu.