SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Any day of the year is a good time to show appreciation for teachers, but right now there’s an extra reason to celebrate.

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week.

KELOLAND News spoke with two college students who are getting ready for careers in education.

Education is everywhere in Kinzie Gullikson’s life.

Her parents are teachers.

“I’ve always kind of grown up in and around the schools,” Augustana University junior Kinzie Gullikson said.

Now, the Augustana University junior is following in their footsteps.

“The older I got the more I realized that’s what I wanted to do, just seeing how they impacted other people’s lives and my teachers impacted my life,” Gullikson said.

Gullikson and Augustana junior Justine Stellnaker both plan on being ENL teachers, or English as a new language.

Education also runs in Stellnaker’s family.

“Education, luckily, here in the US is such a universal experience that everyone shares. And for teachers to go out of their way to make that special for every single kid they have in their classes, it’s not an easy task all the time with behaviors and situations and new curriculum demands year after year, but rolling with the punches and still being able to care about your students at the end of the day is what makes teaching so valuable,” Augustana University junior Justine Stellnaker said.

“No matter what you want to do, whether you want to be a doctor, a teacher someday, or you want to be psychologist, whatever path you want to take in your life there was a teacher who might have exposed you to that or they’ve gotten you to where you are today,” Gullikson said.

These two women are passionate about making an impact on their future students.

Both students are from Minnesota.

Gullikson hasn’t decided where she wants to teach after graduation, and Stellnaker wants to start out her career teaching internationally.