On the day of her interview, Aysa Wade was celebrating her 25th birthday. Between morning greetings to colleagues and managing her eleven third-graders, the young teacher still found time to reflect on her unconventional path to the classroom at Meridian Elementary.

"I am earning my teaching degree as I am teaching," explains Wade, who is currently a junior at Southeast Missouri State University while simultaneously serving as a third-grade teacher. Her status as a "permanent sub" while completing her education represents the evolving nature of teacher preparation amid nationwide staffing challenges.

Wade's journey to teaching wasn't straightforward. Growing up just 15-20 minutes from Meridian in Tamms, Illinois, she attended Shawnee College before graduating in 2020—right as the pandemic upended traditional education.

"I am that Gen Z pandemic generation," she says with a smile. "It was very interesting trying to continue school that year."

With her education interrupted, Wade took a chance and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she worked in sales and marketing. "I did that for a year and got all the experience that I needed to know that's not what I wanted to be when I grew up," she says with characteristic self-awareness.

A position at a preschool in Brentwood, Tennessee, with three and four-year-olds sparked something different. "I fell in love with that," Wade recalls. "I was like, you know what, I could kind of do this. Let's go back to school so I could do this for real."

That realization brought her back to the region in 2022. After subbing at Meridian and briefly working at an elementary school in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, she returned to Meridian in a more permanent capacity while continuing her education.

The daily balancing act is demanding. Wade drives 40 minutes each way between her home in Cape Girardeau and Meridian Elementary. Last semester, her schedule sometimes meant 12-hour days—arriving at school by 7:30 am, teaching until after 3:00 pm, then attending evening classes until 7:30 pm.

"Then you gotta remember to feed yourself and all that," she adds with a laugh.

While Wade admits she favors teaching younger children, she's embracing the unique challenges of third grade. "They are going through a mini puberty because they're no longer little kids, but they're not quite yet big kids," she observes. "This is their first year taking standardized tests, so they're kind of figuring it out and testing the waters."

Despite being new to the profession, Wade brings a valuable perspective to her classroom—she's closer in age to her students than many of her colleagues, creating both connections and boundaries to navigate.

"I think they love me because I'm the young, fun teacher," she says. "They're like, 'Let's do TikToks,' and I'm like, 'Absolutely not.' But we know the same songs and the same slang, so they love that aspect of it. And I have to remind them that I am their teacher."

Wade has found support among both veteran and newer teachers at Meridian. She specifically mentions Melissa Hawkins, who once spent six hours on a Sunday helping her prepare, and kindergarten teacher April Kutak, who shares Wade's belief in early intervention for social-emotional learning.

"By the time they are eight or nine years old, they are stuck in some of their habits already," Wade explains. "If we can get them in those pre-K kindergarten years and teach them emotional regulation... I feel like that would take a huge load off of teaching because a lot of the time is spent correcting behaviors versus teaching actual curriculum."

Though she didn't attend Meridian as a student, Wade feels connected to the community. "Even though I didn't go to school here, I do feel like this is my community because I was just 15, 20 minutes away. I remember playing ball against them—well, I was a cheerleader, but I couldn't sweat," she adds with a laugh.

For Wade, teaching at Meridian represents both a homecoming and a new beginning. "I feel like it's an honor that I get to teach, and I get to experience this with this district because I did want to be here, and I was asked to be here. That was really honoring."