A Passion for Teaching

Abigail Merha is part of HMA’s founding faculty. Born and raised in Tennessee, she is HMA’s first Ethiopian-American teacher. 

When I was a kid and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d say “a teacher”. My family didn’t want me to pursue teaching, at least not at first. I’m a first generation American. My parents fled Ethiopia 27 years ago, leaving behind their chosen careers as a journalist and photographer for the national newspaper to take on what blue collar work was available to them as new immigrants. To them, teaching was not ambitious enough. “A teacher?” my family would ask. “Your parents didn’t sacrifice everything for you to be a teacher. You should be a doctor or a lawyer!”

As I got older, I understood that my family wanted me to pursue a higher-paying career because they wanted better for me, but I believed that it was my duty to live in my passion because they didn’t get to. I didn’t want to choose a career just for financial stability.

During college, I began assessing my passions—especially for justice and equality—and thinking about practical ways that I could give back. After I graduated, I started substitute teaching at a school whose students came from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The school barely had enough teachers for the number of students in each class, 5 students often shared a single textbook, and I was breaking up student fights every day. And yet, it was a particularly difficult day at that school that helped me realize that teaching was always what I wanted to do.

It was a Friday, the end of a very long week of substitute teaching. Though I’d voiced concerns to the administration that I needed something to teach the kids, I was left alone that day with no lesson plans, no computer, no textbooks, no assignments—just an empty classroom and twenty-three seventh graders and one box of tissues. My students were especially disruptive, and I had to call the school officers to break up 3 different fights. I left exhausted and ready to call it quits. But then when Monday rolled around, I woke up and thought, "I can't give up on these kids."  

Back at the school, I headed to the office to request a laptop so I could create a lesson plan. On the way to the office, I ran into one of the girls who had given me the hardest time the previous week. "You came back?" she asked, surprised. And that's when it hit me. Teaching was not easy, but it brought me back to myself—a person who is passionate about making a difference.

I heard about HMA at exactly the right time. During my time as a substitute teacher, I had been thinking about moving to Ethiopia—returning home, in some ways—in order to teach students who may not have access to good educational opportunities. 

My mom told me about a new school opening in Ethiopia, so I looked around and found Rebecca Haile’s interview on the Helen Show. It sounded almost too good to be true: a school that brings all Ethiopian ethnicities together and promotes project-based learning and inquisitive learning styles—those are all things I am passionate about. So I applied! 

It is a privilege to have this experience at HMA, to teach and also to learn alongside our students. My family is proud of me, and especially proud that I am going back “home”, and as a teacher at that.