Non-traditional student achieves lifelong dream of becoming a teacher with help from BGSU

After making a career change, Ambre Partin found a fulfilling career path through a master’s degree at BGSU

In the back of her mind, Ambre Partin ’15, ’25 always figured she should have been an educator.

As life got in the way, though, that idea seemed far away.

At various points, she stayed home with her children, worked full-time and part-time jobs, some at the same time, stayed home again to care for a child with special needs and ran the show caring for her and her husband’s children – the never-ending crush of school mornings, activities, practices, homework and bedtimes. To make it work, she knew she would have to fit her education into the meager free time she had.

“Through all that, teaching was always in my mind,” she said. “I knew I could be a teacher, all the way back to kindergarten. For one reason or another, I just kept putting it off."

This year, Partin officially can say her dream is a reality.

Partin graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Master of Education in curriculum and teaching, the state of Ohio’s Alternative Resident Educator certification and a fulfilling career path that already feels natural.

Being in the classroom 'just felt natural'

After caring for her youngest son, who was diagnosed with epilepsy early in life, Partin took her first steps into becoming an educator as an elementary paraprofessional for Bowling Green City Schools.

Within a year, she knew that she was doing something that spoke to her.

When the classroom’s teacher had to take a leave of absence for medical care, Partin found herself thrust into an expanded position working with a full caseload of students, not just those with special needs – and found herself at home.

When BGSU student teachers began to ask for her guidance, Partin began to believe this was the career for her.

“I was able to take a much bigger role than I had expected, but it ended up working really well,” she said. “The student teachers who were there were telling me how much they were learning from me and telling me they couldn’t believe I wasn’t already a teacher. That really sat with me.

“For me, that was what solidified it. It just felt natural.”

In BGSU, Partin had everything she needed to become a full-time educator.

The curriculum and teaching master’s degree is available online to accommodate working professionals, while BGSU is a top choice for the Alternative Resident Educator certificate, an accelerated pathway to licensure that the state of Ohio designed to help fill statewide teacher openings.

Making the dream a reality

Partin decided to pursue the certificate and the master’s degree at the same time, and she was able to fit everything into an already jam-packed schedule.

At the end of the 2023-24 academic year, however, Partin’s elementary school students had a problem: She couldn’t come with them to middle school.

“On the last day of elementary school, my students all wrote me cards and letters of recommendation saying that I should be at the middle school and they wanted me to come with them,” she said.

During the summer, however, an intervention specialist role at the middle school’s Learning Center opened.

Already on the path to acquiring her license and a master’s degree, Partin applied and was hired, setting the stage for full-time work that connects with her.

“I applied, used their letters of recommendation in the interview, which everybody got a kick out of, and got the job," she said. "It was so fun seeing each of those students in the halls on the first day of school, letting them know they helped me get my dream job and I would get to see them at the middle school after all."

'She worked so hard'

For Partin, the support of family has been an integral part of the journey.

Her husband, Matthew Partin ’95, ’98, ’08, Ph.D., a teaching professor in the Biological Sciences Department who also coordinates the Marine Lab at the University, saw the amount of effort and determination it took to make the degree a reality.

“She worked so hard for it,” he said. “Any new teacher is going to come home and have a mound of work to prepare for tomorrow’s lesson, and she’s been doing all that while also working on her master’s degree, her teacher’s license and we have six kids who need rides to music or band or just would like to have a book read to them.

“It's unbelievable how much time and effort she put into all of it, and she’s graduating with a 4.0 on top of it all. I’m so proud of her that I don’t even know where to start.”

Ambre Partin joked that her journey was marked “with no sleep and a new appreciation for energy drinks,” but one that culminated with a rewarding end.

The path to graduation has been long and, at times, arduous, but she ultimately ended up exactly where she was meant to be.

“It took me a lot longer than I would have liked it to just because I was doing so much,” she said. “I was exhausted a lot. It was really tough at times, but I can say that I did it.

“Now, I get to do something that I love full-time.”