To friends, family, and close acquaintances, Kaneshia R. Moore is known as a very driven woman, determined to achieve any goals she sets out to accomplish. My adolescent years felt strange and I felt like the off ball in the group most of the time. My mother was addicted to crack cocaine, my father was in prison, we lived in the local housing projects, and we survived off of government assistance and food stamps. Perhaps, these were the factors that trained my mindset and molded my ambition. I knew I wanted to be a mother one day and I was certain that I never wanted a child of mine to live under those same circumstances.
Through my entire stretch of grade school, academics mattered far more than appearance. While being clean and wearing matching clothes were taken into consideration, I knew that my academic performance was the ticket to the life I dreamed of. Because of this, I often excelled in the classroom but not in the social arena. I figured I'd work on the social part later, as it was not an essential part of the success I envisioned for myself and my future family.
It was some time in middle school when I realized that the world of criminal justice intrigued me. No particular event occurred but it was a passion that stuck with me for over two decades. After graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 2007, my career began as an adult probation officer. After about five months of casework, I started to notice that probation was a revolving door and not a true deterrent for many probationers. So, I went back to the drawing board in search of a career that would allow me to continue pursuing my passion for criminal justice and allow me to make a difference in the lives of others. After a few months of research, the plan to become an attorney targeting juvenile clients began to unfold.
This plan has brought me on a long, winding yet interesting journey. The necessity to continue working full time created a detour in the plan by a few years. Initiating the plan warranted me to gain experience with juveniles so I earned a Master's Degree in Juvenile Justice and became a middle school math teacher. After five years of teaching and being named the teacher of the year for my campus, I was ready for the next step and a new adventure. During my three years of law school, I continued to substitute in middle school math classrooms. I really enjoyed seeing the smiles of students when they finally realized that math wasn't as scary as they'd thought it to be. I miss that at times. Although I don't plan to return to the classroom full-time, tutoring is a way for me to help students find their niche in the world of math.