Emily grew up in Mattawan, going to school with the same group of kids from kindergarten all the way through graduation. She loved her teachers. She loved the safety of her school. And from an early age, she sought something deeper than most kids her age — real relationships, especially with the adults around her.
In this episode of All Stories Matter, host Marvinetta Woodley-Penn sits down with Emily to trace the thread that runs through her life: the teachers who saw something in her before she saw it herself. From a bridging room teacher who was “exactly what I needed” to a fourth-grade math teacher whose classroom “you just wanted to be a part of,” Emily’s story is about the quiet, lasting power of being noticed.
It was that math teacher who wrote her name on the chalkboard — not Emily, but MLE, three letters that became a kind of signature she’s carried ever since. “That’s where my love for numbers became where I realized I’m good at this,” she says. Finding that she had a knack for numbers felt like discovering a superpower in a place where she didn’t feel especially athletic, popular, or advantaged. It changed the direction of her life. Today she’s an accountant — and still good with numbers.
Emily also shares a story she didn’t learn until years later: a Thanksgiving classroom assignment that asked kids to draw a wishbone and write their wish. She wished to see her dad more. She sent it to him somehow. He moved back. He told her why much later.
A warm, unhurried conversation about the teachers who stay with you.
All Stories Matter is produced by Community Creator Marvinetta Woodley-Penn
