When I first started writing this column, I assumed I would be flooded with emails and phone calls from people wanting me to write about one or more of their former teachers because almost everyone I know has had at least one teacher who has made a dramatic impact on their life but that hasn’t happened … until recently.

During the first four days of this month I had the privilege of accompanying eight local students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly in Tacoma Washington, a gathering of 120 or so Grade 10 and 11 students from Vancouver Island and Washington State. This is a four day event featuring motivational speakers and mini leadership workshops.

At one point during the weekend, I overheard Anna Bunce, Mandeep Jaswall and Alita Dancey talking about their English teacher and Student Council Mentor, Karen Miller. I joined their conversation as a listener. What I heard would make any teacher simultaneously blush and burst with pride.

Mandeep summed up her thoughts by saying it’s not very often a student finds a teacher they know they’ll remember the rest of their life but, she told me, Mrs. Miller is one of those teachers.

“She has a way of maintaining a student/teacher relationship and also being your friend at the same time,” Mandeep explained.

During the spring break, Mrs. Miller is leading a group of students on a European tour. Last week while talking to Mandeep and her friends, she said she was excited to be travelling to Europe with her “teenage best friends” and yet, Mandeep says, if something happened in her life and she didn’t feel she could talk to her mother or her friends, she would go to Mrs. Miller as her teacher and know she would be listened to and get good advice.

“You feel privileged to be in her presence,” Anna told me. “I don’t think she knows how many lives she has touched. She gave me the confidence I needed to stand up for who I am and what I want and then to go for it!

“If we have an idea for something we want to do for the school,” Anna continued, “we always go to her because we know she’ll guide us – She won’t do it for us – but she is an incredible guide.”

Alita Dancey summed up Mrs. Miller’s contribution to her and her friends by saying it’s all the little things she does for others that inspires them to lend a helping hand whenever they can.

Alita described her as being the “backbone” of the student council. Because of her mentorship, Alita suggests, the council is respected and supported by the other teachers in the school.

“Mrs. Miller is like a motivational speaker in every class,” she enthused. “She is passionate about everything she teaches and you can’t help but listen … She inspired me be to be who I am today and I believe she will inspire me for the rest of my life.”

Alita says she cruised through the first couple of years of school but then Mrs. Miller gave her a research project on World War Two and she decided to give it all she had to let Mrs. Miller know that she wasn’t a “cruiser” any more. Ever since then she says, she has learned to give just that little bit extra to everything she does.

For the last year I have worked with these three girls and several others who have been influenced by Mrs. Miller and I’m here to tell you, she’s doing a great job as a teacher, mentor and motivational speaker.

These kids are destined for greatness and they all attribute much of their success to date to Mrs. Miller’s ability to lead by example.