Greensboro Reporter

Yahira Robinson was so eager to enter the world of working professionals, she couldn’t wait until college graduation, but her aspirations didn't come at the expense of her education.

Robinson graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro on May 15 with a dual degree in elementary education and dance studies. But she's already gotten her feet wet in terms of her career, getting a teaching job early through a student petition.

“I’ve been full-time teaching since January,” Robinson said, according to WFMY 2 News. “The students love it, I love it. It’s been a great, great journey."

She began as a sixth-grade substitute teacher at Northern Guilford Middle School in Greensboro. She and the students "made such a great connection, they created a petition to hire me over winter break, and I got hired.”

Robinson had an early exposure to dance at UNCG. At age 12, she was part of Dancers Connect, a visual and performing arts program.

“This was my first exposure (when) it comes to dance,” Robinson told WFMY 2 News. “It really became therapy. I met some really great and awesome faculty.”

While she was growing up, Robinson said she got a lot of support from her mother.

“My mother, she is a wonderful woman. She is a single mother of six children, and she does it so effortlessly,” Robinson told WFMY 2 News. “She is someone who will always make something happen. I became the first person in my family to graduate college, but they’ve all inspired me and continue to.”

Robinson doesn’t know if she wants teaching to be her only career, but she does know that a good education is the first step. In fact, she wants to pursue grad school. And in line with that goal, she has accepted a full scholarship to get her masters in education at UNCG, starting this fall.

"I don’t have one career I want to do for the rest of my life, but I do know I want to help other people for the rest of my life,” she told WFMY 2 News. “I am going to become Dr. Robinson. I don’t know what I am going to get my doctorate in yet (but) more than likely a doctor of education.”