Whether or not they realize the grandeur of their gestures, many teachers can change lives, shape job paths or clarify world views. Some of these professionals pursue degrees in education to experience the rewards of giving students skills they can independently use for the rest of their lives. Others find that the teaching schedule accommodates their desire to pursue other interests.

Dana Dean, the team leader of Magnolia West High School's English department says she became interested in literature from a young age. However, she admits to the Houston Chronicle that horse training and racing is her true passion.

Thirty years ago, Dean enrolled at Texas A&M as a veterinary medicine major in an attempt to make a profession out of her pastime. After a few semesters, however, "science got a bit too strenuous," she told the news source.

Though she didn't think she was cut out to pursue her love an animals, Dean has found that a career in teaching offers the flexibility to maintain the 14-acre farm her family has owned for four generations.
During the summers she spends hours on the racetrack with her steeds and once school starts she says, "I check on my horses each day at lunch."

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan estimates that 1.7 million new teaching jobs will be needed by 2017.