Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I'm Pam Stewart. I'm Commissioner of Education for the State of Florida. I say very often that I am the voice for those students who have no one to be their voice. And I believe that while Florida is doing amazing things and we have done much on the part of our teachers' parents and our students and our principals and all the families that are associated with our performance in Florida, there's work still to be done. I want to be that person who encourages others to encourage a student to inspire a student to do well, to encourage our schools to achieve more, to be able to reach that goal of closing the gap between our most vulnerable students and all our students in the state of Florida. There are those students out there who need someone just to give them that pat on the back or that support or that nudge to be what we know they could be. I would often tell our teachers that they may be the first positive thing that a student hears in that particular day. And that they inspire students. That's what centers me. That's what makes me want to do that work. Pam Stewart I serve as the Commissioner of Education for the State of Florida. Voices That Inspire is sponsored by Leadership Tallahassee, a program of the Tallahassee Chamber celebrating 35 years of cultivating community leadership.