Danyel Dahlen, 2025 KCSOS Teacher of the Year.

Each day, she stands before a room of curious, uncertain, hopeful minds—each carrying their own stories, struggles, and dreams. In that moment, we don’t just inform—we inspire. "That is why I teach."

The easy answer might be “she love kids”, but that barely scratches the surface. Teaching isn’t just a profession—it’s a calling. It’s the privilege of shaping futures, building confidence, and showing someone their voice matters. It’s messy, meaningful, and deeply human.

Of course, she teaches standards—the curriculum and the measurable objectives, but she is called to teach for so much more than that.  She teaches self- confidence, advocacy, resilience, empathy, curiosity, and the radical belief that everyone has worth and potential.

Danyel's teaching journey wasn't a straight path. She always knew She wanted to work with children—first as a pediatrician, until a class with a lot of blood and drama showed her that wasn't her calling. Then pediatric dentistry beckoned, until looking at teeth all day didn’t seem so amazing, followed by dreams of becoming a family attorney until she realized..No way! The teaching component crystallized when she took a storytelling class in college. A classmate of her disclosure opened her eyes to educational inequity. Suddenly, those professions meant little to her compared to making a difference in a classroom.

She taught general education first, but found my true calling in special education. In her second year of SPED, while teaching 7th and 8th grade students, she conducted a study on self-advocacy, and she witnessed firsthand the transformative power of just one person believing in another and teaching them to do the same. That is ultimately "why I teach."

It’s not for the easy answer, but for the truth: "we have the power to change lives, one student, one moment, one belief at a time. That is why we teach!"