A Maryvale High School teacher has become the first Arizonan to be selected for the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Kareem Neal has been teaching special education at Maryvale in Phoenix for more than 20 years. He says it's the students that keep him coming back to school every day.
“For me, when I go into school it feels like I am going to be with my family," Neal said.
Neal was named the 2019 Teacher of the Year by the Arizona Educational Foundation.
Neal told KJZZ's The Show in 2019 he decided to become a teacher after attending a Special Olympics event while he was a 19-year-old chemical engineering student.
"It was really refreshing to have people just all be themselves. And I was like, 'I need to be a part of this,'" said Neal. "I immediately was like, 'I finally know what I want to do.'"
Neal will be inducted there in June, along with four other teachers in this year’s class.
The National Teachers Hall of Fame was founded in 1989 in Emporia, Kansas.
