Jason Smith, director of the International School of Arizona - a dual language immersion pre-K to 8th grade school in Scottsdale specializing in French and Spanish - didn’t start out to be an educator.
“My childhood dream was to go to Yale Law School and become an attorney,” Smith said. “And then, the summer right after I graduated high school, the school district that I attended, they were looking for high school graduates from their high schools to support their summer school program, to go in and essentially work as a teacher’s assistant. I thought this would be a great opportunity to earn some extra money before I go to college and that’s when I realized I liked teaching, I liked being around kids, and I was good at it, the way the kids engaged with me.”
Smith says another teacher suggested he explore teaching as a career, but he rebuffed the idea.
