Logan semifinalist in national teacher competition hopes to give back to community

LOGAN — A Logan High School math teacher, who is a semifinalist in a national teacher competition, hopes to give back to the community if she wins.

Ryah Dowdy said she always wanted to be a teacher, but that dream became more prevalent after she served a religious mission. She was serving in Peru when she got sick from parasites and got a staph infection on her face from a popped pimple.

Her recovery was difficult and took several doctors and help from family members to do things she couldn't do on her own. Since she has always enjoyed math, she knew she could help others by teaching them.

"I wanted to give back to people in a way that they needed help when they couldn't help themselves," she said. "Now, I can do that for other people because math is a big thing that is hard for people to do on their own, and I can help them with it."

This year is her third year teaching full time, but she has been tutoring people in math for a decade now.

She decided to enter the America's Favorite Teacher competition mainly because she thought it would be fun. She never imagined she would now be in the semifinals.

"It has been super cool. I only joined the competition because I thought it would be a fun thing, but it has honestly been jaw-dropping. I did not think I'd get this far, I didn't know how many people cared," she said.

Dowdy has been brought to tears several times throughout the last month as she has been overwhelmed by the love of her students and school. She said she wouldn't have made it so far without the donations she has received from family, friends, strangers and local businesses to help her continue in the competition.

"I get emotional that they care about me and want me to win, and half of them don't even know me," she said. "I think I'm the last person left in Utah, so it feels cool that I get to represent our state and for how much the community is backing me up."

Three other Utah teachers made it to the quarterfinals of the competition before being eliminated, but they also emphasized how special the experience was in connecting them with their communities.

As a cross-country coach, Dowdy spends a lot of extra hours at the school helping her athletes. Seeing how much her community has recognized her hard work and supported her in the competition has more than made up for it.

"I'm getting a lot back from all the people I do a lot of work for — they are putting in a lot of effort to show me they care about me and the work that I've done. There's a lot of time put in that people don't see. ... It really feels like I'm getting paid back for all that I have done," Dowdy said.

Because Dowdy speaks Spanish, she has also been able to connect with and teach Spanish-speaking kids to help them better learn.

At the end of the day, Dowdy is just grateful she is exactly where she always wanted to be. Teaching math is a lot of helping encourage kids to try even when it's hard, she said.

"I really do get to help kids in something they can't do on their own and to see them overcome that ... to see when it does work when they do start to believe themselves or pass a test for the first time in their math career. It's really cool to see that and help kids in the way I've always wanted to," Dowdy said.

Voting for the semifinals ends Thursday, May 14, at 8 p.m., but only the top teacher from each semifinal group will go to the finals. The winner receives $25,000, a trip to Hawaii, an article in Reader's Digest and the chance to meet Bill Nye.

If Dowdy wins, she wants to use the funds to start a free tutoring center in Cache Valley.

"I think it would be so cool to start a tutoring center that is free for students, and is run on donations and grants. I think this could really positively impact how math is thought of and how kids learn math in our valley," she said.

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