≡ Jennifer Gee Hale ≡

At Penn State I majored in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management. Four years of learning about the hospitality industry. Every summer, I secured a job in that area. I was prepared to work in food service one way or the other! When I graduated from College, I immediately began working in the food service industry. After two years of work. I decided that food service management wasn’t for me. The employees came in late, with fifty million excuses. They even lied on their own children to get out of work! Many of them were lazy, nasty and disrespectful. Imagine breaking up a fight in the middle of a kitchen… were there are knives! One day, someone recommended that I teach food service instead of managing it. At first I thought, teach, they must be crazy. Then I remembered my destiny. To reach the masses like my predecessor, Dr. King. So I took on the challenge. Now of course you realize I had to eat crow. Remember, I told my mother that I would never be like her! And to make matters worse… my first longterm substitute teaching job was at West Philadelphia High School. The same school where she was teaching. The students called us Little Ms. Gee and Big Ms. Gee. Depending on whether you were talking about weight or age depended on who was who. Now, thirteen years later, I am still teaching. Touching the lives of thousands. Inspiring and preparing children for the future. Attempting to fill the great shoes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, I am not there yet, but who knows what I am destined for in the future!