College professor inspires students through her videos

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – For one college professor in Cape Girardeau, wearing a cape is just one of the ways she inspires future educators at Southeast Missouri State University.   

In college, inspiration can sometimes be hard to find, but Dr. Shonta Smith found a way through TikTok to connect to her students.  

“I feel the need to do the videos when we think about when the pandemic hit, that’s where I got some of the ideas,” Smith said. “I have been doing the videos for about a year and a half now.”  

Dr. Smith takes on multiple personalities to relate to the students in her classroom by using characters they know.  

“I become Beyonce/Sasha Fierce and a little bit of Kevin Hart,” Dr. Smith said. “So, I put that hat on and then I become the teacher, the speaker, and I give you all this goodness and greatness.”  

Elementary Education Senior Whitney Mauk finds that Dr. Smith’s videos give her the encouragement she needs to help in her classroom.  

“They are so engaging and even as a teacher or student, I’m engaged in watching them and learning from them and it encourages me to want to be a better teacher,” Mauk said.  

Dr. Smith wants to encourage every person, whether it is a student, faculty, or part of the community, to be their best version of themselves. 

“Every single day that we wake up, not just me, but it’s about us, every single day that we wake up we have an opportunity to live our best life,” Dr. Smith said.  

To find out more about Dr. Shonta Smith’s inspirational videos, click this link to go to her TikTok videos.