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![Principal O'Neill Principal O'Neill](https://cdnsm5-ss19.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_199200/Image/WhatsNew/Bridge%20O'Neill.jpg)
Why did you choose to be an educator?
I started going to school thinking primarily that I wanted to go into social work. I work for the Department of Child Protection and Permanency, which was DFYS at the time, for a couple years and I also was a foster parent. I got the idea relatively quickly that there was more we could be doing to prevent children from going into services like that. I definitely thought that education was a part of that so that’s what drove me to be a teacher. Then as a teacher, I worked at Long Branch High School under some really great principals who pushed me to go back to graduate school and to get into leadership. From there I went to Columbia University.
Click here to read the entire Coaster article on Principal Bridget O'Neill.