In a land full of dreams and opportunity often left unrealised, Sanghmitra Dhar realized hers. Having grown up in India, Dhar immigrated to the United States with her husband and child. While becoming accustomed to her new home, Dhar had her sights set on taking college classes in order to become a teacher. However, to accomplish her goal she would have to overcome many obstacles. “ When I was interning I went to schools, the schools systems there were completely different from the ones in India, I had to teach students who did not accept me as their teacher, there were issues with my accent and there was a lot of stress dealing with studying and family”. Despite the hardships, Dhar persevered and earned her degree in 2019 from Towson University. Having first hand experience with the Howard County community by completing an internship at Reservoir High School and having her own two children attending Howard County schools, she naturally thought it fitting to work there. From her experience as a teaching intern she learned to connect with and understand students, in fact one of Dhar’s most rewarding experiences throughout her education in the United States was an interaction with a particular student. “ There was a student who was in a GT class that would never listen to me because I was an intern, initially I was very angry with him and asked him why, but then I felt bad in the way i had spoken to him, so the next day I apologized so slowly we built up a positive relationship” . In addition, her unique background of being an Indian immigrant ,that once ostracized her from her peers, has allowed her to better understand the diverse student community that all Howard County schools have to offer. “Howard County is good in the sense that each student is trying to compete with each other, that’s a good thing, but I sometimes feel that not all students get support, there is some kind of lack in understanding student’s problems ...there’s a lack of diversity in teachers, the students are more diverse so sometimes it’s difficult to understand the students from that perspective….there are many students coming from all over the world and some can not speak English, so they really are struggling, although I come from India and can speak English … I feel like we were struggling with the same thing ..I think we need more bilingual teachers to help interact with these students and help them out” . All of these experiences and more have shaped Dhar’s perspective and her duty as a substitute teacher. She plans on subbing at Howard High School before the 2018-2019 school year ends.