Patty Wyman is who she is today because she chose her path and stuck to it. Everything she has achieved is the result of conscious decision-making and a rock-solid belief in her ability to succeed. This combination has been the bedrock of her teaching career for the last 30 years. And she’s passing on to her students the same unwavering belief in their own abilities and potential.

Born in Napa, California, Wyman was a shy middle child who often struggled to stand out among her older, more outgoing siblings. In eighth grade, she decided she wanted to be a cheerleader. In one year, in a single act of will, Patty transformed herself into an exuberant personality who drew plenty of friends and was at the center of social activities.

“I just always wanted to be that type of person who wouldn't just sit back; I liked to get things done.”

But after graduating from college, she struggled to find a career that could make the best use of the skills she’d cultivated. She worked a variety of jobs, none entirely satisfying her, until she found herself teaching educational courses to tourists one summer. And that is when she discovered that her empathy and humor, as well as that streak of theatricality, were perfect for teaching.

“That's how it started: I just loved talking and entertaining people, and I figured I could do that with twelve and thirteen-year-olds,” she says.

She got a Master’s in Education and became a history teacher at Silverado Middle School back in Napa, where she grew up. In 2007, she started an elective leadership class for her eighth graders to counter what she saw as a growing sense of negativity and helplessness in her students.

That year, after watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that featured WE Charity founder Craig Kielburger, Wyman became one of the first educators in the U.S. to sign up for free WE service-learning resources. Together, Wyman and her students learned about the challenges associated with accessing education in many countries and they worked to raise enough money to build two schools with WE in Ecuador.

Today, Wyman continues to value being part of the WE Teachers program and having tools that can help her students make a difference in the world.

Wyman is approaching retirement but has no plans to slow down. She’ll be visiting some of the schools she and her students helped build in the Napo Valley in Ecuador soon, and will be working with Oprah on a movie of her class’s meeting with her.

“Every year it’s just another expansion of that idea I had in the eighth grade that I can be whatever I want.”