- I knew that I could provide that kind of security and safety for them, to make it safe for them to learn, to make them safe for them to explore.

And that's how I always wanted to try to create.

(gentle piano music) My name is Denise Abbott.

I teach at Timpview High School and I teach medical assisting and medical anatomy and physiology.

- Denise is definitely in this for her students.

She was a nurse, and I think that caring nature has continued into her teaching aspect.

- I have always tried to be a person and not necessarily a teacher, but a person that people could reach out to and feel comfortable with instead of me just being that sage on the stage.

- She likes to participate in the whole school community.

So kids see her everywhere.

She goes, and she talks to them.

She meets their parents.

She remembers their parents.

She'll remember your story.

- I have a wall of fame in my back of my room.

So if they finish anything medical wise, they go up on my wall of fame.

My eye doctor is a former student.

My family physician is a former student.

They just keep giving and giving and giving not only to me, but to people in the community.

- Her students need to do internships, and this year because of COVID it was rather difficult to get those internships in place.

- They need a lot of people who volunteer for that COVID testing.

And in the beginning, I kept trying to tell our administration use my interns, use my interns.

They've been through this training, they're interning at clinics.

They can help test.

There's anywhere from 10 to 16 of my medical interns who were helping do all the swabbing up the nose and put the tests together.

And they are a vital part at the COVID testing sites.

- Denise is fabulous at reaching out.

We will brainstorm with each other on different ways to effectively teach children.

Solve problems with lesson plans, students, administrators, families.

- I try to take my students every year to Utah State University to the cadaver labs.

It really has helped the students to see those human body structures and abnormalities.

I know I've looked at a fetal pig.

I know I've looked at a frog and I can kind of see that I have those organs there, but this is what I actually look like.

- She has been very influential in helping me bring a higher professionalism to my classroom and to my students.

I can't imagine teaching anywhere where she's not.

- I think it's important for students to realize that they can be anything that they want to be.

There are no barriers, just sometimes what we put the limitations on ourself.

You can be a male nurse, you can be a female doctor.

- And I think that that's what's really valuable is she believes in her students.

Doesn't matter what color your skin is or what gender you are or what pronoun you go by.

You can be good and solid at whatever you choose.

- I've had many opportunities to leave teaching, and sometimes get lost in the grading.

I'm like, oh, I should have applied for that and this and this.

But at the end of the day, I can't imagine doing anything else but teaching.

(gentle piano music) - And I love that she continues to change every year and that she doesn't do things exactly the same way.

It encourages me and it reminds me that as a teacher you have to change with your students.

You have to allow them to become a part of a classroom.

- It makes me feel like I have given something back to kids.

I think we can really make the greatest impact for our future, is these teenagers.

(gentle piano music)