Troy Oliver has been an educator for over 30 years, and she's never imagined doing anything else.

"Both my parents were teachers and I really couldn't see anything else back in the Stone Age, when I was born," she joked. "You didn't think of anything else. Your parents were teachers, and you will be one as well.

"When I was a child, I would line up the dining room chairs, like I was in a classroom, and I would have my little belt and I would beat the chairs, pretending they were students.

"It's funny, I never considered doing anything else." Oliver, who holds a bachelor of arts and a master's degree in education, has taught at Aquinas College, Queen's College, St. John's College and Success Training College, just to name a few.

"The years at Aquinas and Queen's College exposed me to the dynamics of teaching young people; while part-time and full-time tenure at some of the nation's leading colleges equipped me for the interaction required in this position," she wrote in a letter.

Oliver, an astute and quirky English and Spanish teacher, is from an academic family. Born in Jamaica, Oliver's brother, Everard Nelson, is a Rhodes scholar. "I'm from a family that is extremely driven.

It's seven children and we have had some pretty successful ones," she said. "I guess the entire arena or environment, as a whole, was so academically based that that molded you for life."

While Oliver spent decades in the classroom, she moved to government administration at the Ministry of Education eight years ago.

While others would be pleased to settle down and retire, Oliver said she is charged and ready to better herself and she has fond memories of the many students she has taught over the years.

"You have no idea, when I see them, how my heart fills with pride because to know that I had a role in shaping their futures, hundreds of professionals, is beyond words," she said.

"Some of them are working three times my salary. I just feel as if, yes, it was time well spent." Oliver, who also writes poetry and fiction, said we should never underestimate how education changes lives.

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