Over the course of my long and eventful life, I have learned and forgotten many things. But one thing that has stuck with me is the name of each and every teacher I ever had. These were the women and men who propelled me forward, who opened vistas and dared a kid from a working-class family to dream big. I was the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college. I never would have gotten that far without the teachers along the way who helped me build a ladder for personal and intellectual growth.