Katie Ferguson is a second-grade teacher at Jessie T. Zoller Elementary School in Schenectady who holds her students up to the highest standards, helping each to achieve his or her fullest potential with a vast array of educational tools and strategies.

Cheryl Peck's day as a custodian starts early in the Lancaster school district and takes her to multiple locations to ensure a seamless school day for the students and staff alike.

As a registered nurse, Howard Sandau works in the Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, providing outstanding and compassionate nursing care to patients who are in critical condition and require constant monitoring and care.

Frances Brown maintains a busy volunteering schedule, serving with a host of local, national and international organizations. She is active in the American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Youth at Risk and the Boys Choir of Harlem.

Joan Perrini sees the unfortunate parallels between teachers' struggles today and those struggles that were the reality when she began her teaching career: low salaries, no contracts, no say in the curriculum and teachers serving at the whim of superintendents or the board of education.

Outraged by working conditions inflicted on adjuncts in the 1990s, Marcia Newfield became radically creative in her representation of the often exploited part-time and adjunct college professor.

Juliette Romano is a professor in the Career and Internship Center at FIT and shows her students the real-world applications and opportunities available to them in the fashion industry.