Despite hardship, STEM teacher Daniela Poenariu never stopped following her aspirations. Doing what she loves, Poe makes sure to get through to her students with her personal anecdotes, targeted jokes and persistent encouragement.

Poe grew up in a then-communist Romania. Her parents divorced when she was 5, and her mom worked multiple jobs just to sustain her and her sister. In school, she was frequently ridiculed by teachers, who would tell Poe that she was and would become nothing. 

“I had teachers bullying me,” Poe said. “Later, I went to a psychologist and she said I have a problem believing in myself and she told me to stay in a mirror and say something positive about myself. It took me six months until I could say something positive.”

Poe studied to get into an electromechanical trade high school. To prove her teachers wrong, she outperformed. Suddenly, math came easy and her grades improved drastically.

“I wanted to prove to the teachers, I am better than what you think, and I became one of the top students in that high school,” Poe said. 

During her senior year, communism fell in Romania. A revolution started in her city of Timisoara. She felt everything. Shootings, people falling, she was in the middle of a war.

“It changed me,” Poe said. “I wanted to prove I’m different than everyone else and I didn’t like communism because everybody had to do the same. My dream was to come to America for freedom.”

For college, Poe applied for a Physics program, but she failed to get in. Fortunately, she got an opportunity at a Physics-Chemistry program, but Chemistry was not her strongest subject.

“I was studying until the last moment,” Poe said. “I was so stressed, and when I went to the exam, I just couldn’t do it.”

Poe transferred to the Physics-only program a year later, but still struggled, seeking to overcome this, she changed her mentality.

“I told myself, whatever happens, happens,” Poe said. “I didn’t care, I didn’t stress myself out. The world isn’t going to end tomorrow if I fail the exam. I was relaxed and I started to get A’s.”

Poe studied Physics because she wanted to teach it, but because of corruption, she could only become a teacher in a good region if she had connections or could pay a bribe of $3,000 to district officials.

Instead, by memorizing English words and phrases, she found work for Carnival Cruise Line. She lived and worked on the cruise as a waitress, then a bartender, for over two years, ultimately illegally entering the United States. 

“I felt like a slave there, and I didn’t like it,” Poe said. “One day, I said to my mom, I’m not coming home.”

Some friends in Boston took her in, letting her sleep on an air mattress on the kitchen floor. Eventually, with the help of a coworker, she managed to find an apartment to live in. 

“I worked as a bartender and in a neighborhood store, working from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m., Poe said. “I just paid rent. It was very hard to live.”

After spending 10 years and over $20,000 on lawyers to become a citizen, she decided to come to Miami, following her best friend’s advice. Here, she found another bartending job and met her husband who motivated her to find a stable job teaching.

“I was studying in a bar whenever I had no customers,” Poe said. 

Poe became a Physics teacher at West Broward High, transferring to Krop 10 years later. Still, she faces adversities, such as balancing her work-life schedule and altering her teaching style for each student.

“Every day, it’s a challenge,” Poe said. “As a teacher, you never know what’s coming to you. In a way, it’s not boring. The hardest challenge is to motivate students.”

Nonetheless, one of her Physics students became a computer engineer despite doing terribly in Ms. Poe’s physics class. She stayed with him after school tutoring, until he started improving. Another student became an astrophysicist. 

“I want to help them become somebody,” Poe said. “ If I can see a change in just a few students’ lives, that makes me happy.”

In addition to her regular and honors classes, she teaches four AP periods, teaching AP Pre-Calculus and AP Physics 1 with an exam pass rate of about 70 percent in AP Physics, 25 percent more than the average. 

“Ms. Poe is one of our hardest-working teachers,” Science teacher Lolithia Otero said. “She’ll do the best that she can to make sure that her kids are successful. She accommodates kids, she’s here before school, after-school tutoring. She’s the embodiment of a true educator.”