As a lifelong educator, Josette Cook Surratt has made an impact on countless lives, including CBS News contributor David Begnaud.

Surratt was Begnaud’s high school English teacher and speech coach at Teurlings Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. She went on to become one of his mentors and a dear friend. 

She’s now retiring after more than 50 years in education, saying she’s grateful for all of the students she’s had throughout the decades.

“I always wanted to be a teacher since I was probably six years old. I look at it as a ministry. The more I worked, the long and the longer it went, I thought more of a ministry. But I always thought it was such a fulfilling and honorable thing to do,” Surratt said.

In 2022, Surratt was inducted into the National Speech and Debate Hall of Fame. 

Begnaud remembers taking a course Surratt taught called interpersonal communication, which he said changed his life.

“I realized in the process of going through that class that you were such a good interpersonal teacher because of what you went through in your personal life,” he said.

Married to an alcoholic, Surratt was a single mom who worked three jobs. She used that pain and personal experience in life to help guide her.

“I learned how to survive and I, I did live in a survival mode for many years, but so many people along the way, helped my girls and helped me and I just knew that that was God’s plan for me,” she said.

Begnaud brought Surratt to Times Square in New York City to show her how he is living his dream thanks to the impact she’s had on his life. She is a large part of the reason he is a broadcaster and storyteller, he said.

Known for her transparency, empathy and love, students in a surprise tribute video praised Surratt for the impact she made, sometimes changing the trajectory of their lives.

“I do love my kids. Even the ones that are difficult to love. I think it’s even more of a challenge for me as a person to have them trust me enough to know that love and feel that love and I did love you and saw so much potential in you and was determined for you to see that potential before you graduated,” Surratt said to Begnaud. “So to watch you live out your dream, has been such a gift to me, and to watch them live out their dream. I’m just so proud of those of everyone I taught.”

Her impact will be felt for years to come. Begnaud surprised Surratt by revealing two people in their hometown, Rodney and Cindy Savoy, are donating $25,000 in her name to the National Speech and Debate Association, so kids who qualify for nationals but can’t afford to go now have the opportunity.