“When a teacher told me in the seventh grade that I would become a teacher, I just laughed:  ‘Me, a teacher? No way!’ Yet here I am, now in my third year of standing in front of a class, teaching physics and math, and I know I am exactly where I belong,” says Paulina Jacynė, a teacher at Kaunas Martynas Mažvydas Progymnasium.

Paulina emphasises that she feels happy working with children, and every day at school reminds her why she chose this career path. She holds a degree in Subject Didactics: STEAM Pedagogy from Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) Academy of Education, according to the university.

The spark of inspiration: in seventh grade

Paulina‘s initial thoughts about the teaching profession began unexpectedly in the seventh grade. Her physics teacher, recognising her quick thinking and abilities, told her, “You will be a teacher.” While she found the comment amusing at the time, it later gained more significance.

“I would finish assignments very quickly, grasp the theoretical material fast, and help other students,” Paulina recounts. “And he, perhaps jokingly or maybe half-seriously, said that I would become a teacher. Of course, in the seventh grade, I had no idea what I wanted from life or which profession I would choose. But later, in the 11th and 12th grades, I realised I genuinely liked physics and mathematics. That’s how I discovered VDU’s Subject Didactics with a STEAM focus, which allowed me to study two subjects – physics and mathematics – at once.”

Read more: LRT.LT