1. Where you live now, where you grew up, and why did you (if you did), move Hello class, my name is Allen M. Jackson Sr.; I currently live in Monroe, Louisiana. I have lived in Monroe for the past twenty-seven (27) years. I moved to Monroe twenty-seven years ago with my job from Indianapolis, Indiana. I am originally from Bienville; Louisiana is where I grew up. I left Bienville and went to college at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana. I left Grambling in 1978 and joined the U. S. Army. I left the army in 1986 and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, left Indianapolis in 1988 and moved to Monroe, Louisiana. I have been here ever since and I am not planning on going anywhere else. I am retired from the State of Louisiana and I pastor a church in Minden, Louisiana for the past eleven (11) years.

2. Pastor and Only Lady of my life I am currently the Pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church Inc. of Minden, Louisiana. I have been at Pleasant Grove for eleven year and counting. I am hoping to be there for another nine years before I retires from fulltime pastors. I retired from the State of Louisiana after 22 year as an Office Manager/computer specialist. I been in the ministry for 21 year as a Youth Pastor and Pastor. I hope to start a Christian base school at church someday or teach Elementary grades 4 th – 6 th grade subjects Math or Social Studies

3. The Jackson Family I am married with three sons, a beautiful daughter and son-in law, and a beautiful granddaughter. My daughter is the oldest, she is 36, three sons ages 28, 27 and 11. My granddaughter she is 5. I enjoy sports (i.e. basketball, football, baseball, etc). I volunteer/coaches at the local YMCA, recreation center and AAU teaching children ages 6 up to 13.

4. How and when you chose to earn a master’s degree in your chosen program. In 2012 when I retired from the State of Louisiana and completed my second degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in General Studies, I decide to pursue a master’s degree in Education. As I began to research, the field of education majority of the school wanted you to enter the classroom and teach or attend classes on campus. I wanted to obtain a master’s degree online only and be able to teach if I choose or not and just pursue my degree.

5. What made you passionate about this career choice? I have worked with children as a youth pastor, volunteer coaching at the YMCA, local recreation center since my daughter was six (6) years old and she is not thirty-six (36). For over thirty years I have watch some children excel with no problem and other struggle because no one took the time to help them to learn in the way they could learn. These are the children that I have always worked with the ones that are struggling to learn. I realize that I could do more if I was working in the education system instead of around the education system.

6. Who was your favorite K – 12 teacher and why? Who was your least favorite and why? My favorite K-12 teacher was my 1 st grade teacher Mrs. Curlee Pierce. Mrs. Pierce taught school for thirty years before integration and until the day she died she remember the names and months of birth that every one of the student that ever been in her class. She would send you a birthday card in that month. I remember getting card from her when I was station in Germany. I really don’t remember the name(s) of my least favorite teacher(s). Because the only time I did not like school was the 1969 -1970 school year. That was the year of mandatory integration and I was never in school enough to get to know any of the teachers. I got bused later that same year to another high school twenty miles from home and had all new teachers. The entire teaching staff at the new school was great but they were not a Mrs. Pierce.

7. If you could only eat one food, for the rest of your life (at dinner time) what would it be? If I could only eat one food, for the rest of my life at dinner time it would be homemade biscuits and ribbon cane syrup. Mrs. Pierce asked me that same question 57 years ago and I gave her the same answers. She asked my mother and she told her that it was my favorite food and it still is my favorite food. Unfortunately, there are not many people that can make a good homemade biscuit and there is only one place in Louisiana where they still make ribbon cane syrup.