If there is one person who has left a deep impression on me，it’s my teacher，Mrs Pathak，who was my class teacher for three years. In my childhood，how I wished I had a mother or a sister like her. One moment she could be tough (严厉的) and strict，another moment caring and compassionate (富有同情心的)．

She always encouraged us to tell the truth. For instance，if one had not done the homework，he need not lie. She allowed us to make mistakes，saying we couldn’t be perfect all the time，but we should try.

Another thing she taught me early on was punctuality. She set a good example with her own behavior. She was always on time，so we students tried our best to be on time.

She surprised us with her sense of humour. Her classroom teaching was always humorous. After class，she talked to us and told us jokes.

We really felt free to ask questions and Mrs Pathak would give the answers. If she did not know—there had been some occasions (场合)—she would say so. We all then tried to find out the answers. Whoever came up with the answer was appreciated and given the due credit (应有的称赞)．Now I sometimes wonder whether Mrs Pathak was pretending just to encourage us to explore and find answers by ourselves.

When Veronika Scott was a student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, she received a task to “design to fill a need.” She dreamed up an idea for overcoats that would double as sleeping bags, made 25 of them, and handed them out to people living in shelters on an abandoned city playground. While her efforts were greeted mostly with enthusiasm from those braving Detroit’s cold winters, one woman voiced dissatisfaction. “We don’t need coats; we need jobs,” she told Veronika. Then she had her second inspiration.

After graduating from college in 2012, Veronika founded the Empowerment Plan, a nonprofit organization. She hired two homeless women to sew the coats and paid them with donations she received through her blog. Now, the Empowerment Plan employs about 20 people and has produced more than 10,000 coats and distributed them in 30 states, Canada, and elsewhere abroad.

“We don’t require previous employment,” Veronika says. “We’re looking for people who are motivated.” The Empowerment Plan provides free classes and lends money to those who qualify. Nearly all the employees eventually move into permanent housing, and some go on to jobs in the auto industry and construction.

Veronika has bettered the coat’s design by making its outer layer of a lightweight material that resists air, wind, and water and its inner layer of a material that stores body heat. Still, Veronika is less focused on the coats than on the workers who make them. “At the end of the day,” she says, “the coat is a vehicle for us to employ people.”

I still remember a lovely girl, though I don't know her name.

We met in the Children’s Hospital, I was 11. I was born with a hole in my heart. So was the five- year-old girl in the bed beside me. We were both recovering from the same operation. Because I was older and wiser, I thought it was my job to look after her. “Do you want to hear a story? ” I asked her one afternoon. “Great! ” she said.

It was so easy to make her happy. She seemed always to be smiling or singing songs.

Life wasn't fair. She passed away. My recovery went well. “You’re really lucky nurse told me. ” But how come my operation was so easy and hers wasn’t?   "I asked. “Easy?” my dad said. “David, your operation wasn't easy at all. We thought we were going to lose you. For two weeks after your operation many things could go wrong. You’re really lucky When you were in the coma（昏迷）,she used to come over to your bed and sing to you. She was watching over you. ” my dad said.

My surgery scars（疤痕）are hidden under my shirt along with the memory of that little girl. She will be at my side like a small angel（天使）. I am old and wise enough now to know that I watching over me whenever life is fair or unfair.