For the past eighteen years, I’ve dedicated my career to teaching high school CTE courses—work that began with equal parts excitement, determination, and sheer uncertainty. On my very first day, standing in front of twenty‑five teenagers with zero minutes of teaching experience, I quickly realized that the traditional approach wasn’t going to work for them or for me. Fifteen worksheets meant to last eighteen weeks made that clear.

So I started creating.

What began as a desperate search for engaging Business Education activities turned into a career-long mission to design meaningful, hands‑on learning experiences. When I couldn’t find projects, I invented them. Early attempts were rough, but each misstep sparked a new idea. Over time, those ideas grew into more than 200 original projects across multiple CTE pathways.

As my certifications expanded, so did my classroom. I organized multiple field trips every year, including taking 350 students (over 7 years) to New York City for Sports Marketing and Fashion Merchandising experiences. My colleagues adopted my projects, and I shared my work at state conferences. The common thread through all of it was simple: learning should be fun—not beach‑vacation fun, but the kind of fun that makes students lean in, stay curious, and forget they’re “supposed” to be bored.

I even found ways to make accounting fun, including a yearly trip to the zoo built right into the curriculum.

While I’ve been the one designing and building these projects, I’ve never done this work alone. Teachers, students, mentors, family, my husband, and my son have supported, encouraged, challenged, and believed in me every step of the way. They never once said, “You can’t do that,” and that freedom has shaped the creative, energetic, student‑centered environment I strive to build every day.

I’m a CTE teacher who believes in possibility, creativity, and the power of learning that feels alive. And after eighteen years, I’m still just getting started.

Melissa Nicholas

Bachelor of Science in Business: Management and Marketing

CTE Certifications in Marketing, Business, and Family Consumer Science Education

Master’s in Education Leadership

Courses taught: Accounting I and II Honors, Apparel and Textile Production I, Apparel II Career Exploration, Child Development, Entrepreneurship, Fashion Design, Fashion Merchandising Honors, Foods and Nutrition, Interior Design, Marketing, Parenting, Principles of Business, Sports and Entertainment Marketing I and II Honors, Teen Living, and Microsoft Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word.