Most students have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up, like a doctor, an author, or maybe even a pilot. However, there is one group of students who know exactly what they want to be, even though it might not be the most popular: a teacher.
The Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) club competed in its area competition on Nov. 14, 2025, at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX. This competition holds multiple events, helping students become future educators. The events encompassed a diverse range of activities, including authoring children’s books, delivering creative lectures, navigating ethical dilemmas, developing lesson plans, designing interactive bulletin boards and creating teacher-made instructional materials. The club traveled with a varsity and junior varsity team, and 24 students advanced to state.
“[Progressing to state] feels amazing,” TAFE Treasurer Camila Lusinchi said. “It does every single year, because you know that you did something good, and you know that all of your hard work and dedication paid off. We really do put a lot into TAFE.”
With the help of TAFE, these students get real-world experience and strategies needed to know for their future career as a teacher.
“This program has been helping me reach my dreams of having a teaching career by preparing me for anything that comes my way. For example, we visit schools on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for one hour and observe an elementary school class,” TAFE historian, junior Bella Brush, said. “It has also set me up for a lot of scholarships, and I am now having my college paid for.”
The TAFE club also inspires many students to join teaching, even though it is not most students’ first choice of a job.
“I was hoping to teach second grade, because there aren’t a lot of male teachers or black teachers,” senior Jarod Junior said. “I would be the first one in my family to be a teacher.”
The competition held many events, but all of them served a purpose for testing future teachers and helping them improve.
“The events were fun. The elf test is a really beneficial test to help you be a teacher in the future,” Diamond Dixon said. “[The job interview event] was not like a regular job interview, but it was more professional, so he had to come with new things to say and speak clearly and confidently.
TAFE provides a great resource for students trying to reach their goals of becoming future educators.
“The teaching profession I would like to be in is the coaching field because I always help my teammates and I feel like I would be a good coach,” freshman Rajah McGary said. “This program is helping me reach that career because it’s teaching me a teacher’s lifestyle on a day-to-day basis, and what I should expect when I become a coach.”
