As a first-grader, Gabrielle Levy knew she wanted to be a teacher. She made that dream a reality by teaching Hebrew school, studying elementary education and Spanish and, finally, working as a substitute teacher with Fairfax County Public Schools, where her journey began.
Levy, 21, lives in Chantilly and belongs to Chabad. She was the president of Chabad American University, where she attended college for two years. In September, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in correctional program support services from the University of Phoenix.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I always grew up with a love and joy of Judaism. That was something that was really important in my household. We grew up going to Hebrew schools and grew up in a smaller Jewish community.
Tell me about your recent trip to Israel.
Post-college, I just finished seminary in Israel. I was there for six months at Mayanot, learning, with other girls, more about Judaism and learning how to learn. It was something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. Last year, I was living in Colorado, and that really gave me the push to finally go and study at Israel seminary.
When I went to seminary, my goal was to learn how to learn, so that I could have foundational skills that would allow me to continue building on my Judaism, whereas before, I was kind of feeling at a point that was like fog in my learning.
How does Judaism play a role in your life and career?
I think that Judaism is really important in my life and really impacts the perspective I view the world with. It allows me to see things from a different light and also to see things from various perspectives.
What does your involvement in the Jewish community look like?
Last year, in the fall, I was teaching Hebrew school to kids from kindergarten through sixth grade — I’ve taught for the past few years at different Chabad locations using a progressive learning system that has levels kind of like karate. I was working at the JCC for some time in high school, teaching social skills programs for kids with special needs, like autism and other intellectual disabilities. So I feel like I’ve tried to play a role in the Jewish community while I’ve been here.
How can other recent post-grads explore their Judaism more deeply?
I think that it’s really important to find a Jewish community that you feel a part of and continue learning with that community. I think it’s really hard to do Judaism on your own, and I think it’s really important to find your people and feel supported by them.
How did you first realize you wanted to go into teaching?
I’ve wanted to teach since first grade. It’s something I’ve known I wanted to do for a really long time. I grew up in the Fairfax County Public Schools system. In high school, I took a class called Teachers for Tomorrow. It’s a [program] that Fairfax County offers in order to grow their teacher base, and I had the opportunity to intern in different classrooms in elementary and middle school settings as a part of my high school day.
So I would go in for part of my high school day and, for like an hour, I would get to be in the classroom for one or two quarters of the year. During that time, I was in a middle school special education class, and I fell in love teaching in this classroom with special education and was like, ‘This is what I want to do with my life.’
Come my first year of college, I applied to be a substitute teacher with Fairfax County and, at the end of my freshman year, I was applying for a long-term substitute job for the last six weeks of the school year, and there weren’t any special education jobs open. So I applied for a position as a teacher for English language learners. Taking the position, I still wanted to teach special education. ‘I speak Spanish, this position works for now, but it’s not what I want to do forever.’
But the students really convinced me that this is what I want to do. I had really memorable, impactful moments reflecting back after those six weeks of working as a long-term teacher with English language learners. I was thinking, for me, it’s about communication and that’s why I wanted to be in special education as well. I was working with students who had communication needs and through that, I really realized that I wanted to give students the ability to communicate in whatever way that was.