Every teacher has a moment.
A moment that whispered — or sometimes shouted — this is what you were made to do.
For Raya Gilman, that moment came early.
At just 22 years old, Raya already carries a clarity about her calling that most people spend years searching for. She is currently studying to become a teacher — and in the very first episode of the Stay Teacher Podcast, she sat down with Coach G and shared a story that stopped us in our tracks.
Raya's path to teaching was not accidental.
Her family's legacy in special education planted a seed long before she ever stepped into a classroom. Growing up surrounded by people who devoted their lives to serving students with unique needs, Raya absorbed something powerful — the belief that every child deserves a teacher who sees them fully.
That belief became her foundation. Her first root.
Like many future teachers, Raya needed more than inspiration — she needed confirmation.
She found it while volunteering in a special education classroom.
What she witnessed there was not what the headlines say about teaching. It was not burnout or budget cuts or overwhelmed educators counting down to summer. What she saw was transformation. Students blossoming. A child mastering something they had never been able to do before. A teacher fully present in that moment — giving everything she had.
Raya knew right then.
This was her room. These were her students. This was her purpose.
At the Stay Teacher Podcast every conversation follows the ROOTS Framework — five pillars that keep great teachers grounded through every storm of the profession.
For Raya those roots already run deep.
R — Reason
A family legacy in special education and a love for children that started long before college. Raya did not choose teaching because it was practical. She chose it because it was personal.
O — Obstacles
The noise. The negativity. The voices — well meaning and otherwise — that question why anyone would choose teaching in today's climate. Funding cuts. Societal perceptions. The endless headlines about teachers leaving the profession.
O — Overcome
By returning again and again to her why. By remembering exactly what she felt in that special education classroom. By choosing purpose over fear every single time doubt showed up.
T — Transformation
At 22 Raya is already becoming the educator she was called to be — not despite the challenges ahead but because of them. Every obstacle she has already navigated has deepened her resolve and sharpened her vision for the teacher she wants to be.
S — Stay
Because love for students and a commitment to lifelong learning are not things that fade. They are things that deepen. Raya's commitment to staying in this profession is not a hope — it is a decision she has already made.
Coach G has been in education for over twenty years. He has seen teachers arrive full of fire and leave broken. He has also seen teachers who carried something different — a rootedness that held them steady when everything else shook.
Raya has that.
And what is most striking about her story is this — she is not naive about the challenges ahead. She knows funding gets cut. She knows the profession is undervalued. She knows the road ahead is hard.
But she also knows exactly why she is walking it.
And that makes all the difference.
Teacher retention does not begin with a policy or a pay raise — although both matter. It begins with a moment. A reason. A root.
Raya Gilman found hers at 22.
The question for every educator reading this is simple — do you remember yours?
Raya's complete story — including the pivotal moments that shaped her calling, her message to teachers who are thinking about quitting, and her vision for the teacher she is becoming — is available now on the Stay Teacher Podcast.
If this story moved you, share it with one teacher today. And if you have a story to tell, reach out at stayteacher.com — we want to hear it.
Your roots run deep.
Stay teacher.
— Coach G