Paul Calvert spoke with Jaz Ampaw-Farr, a past contestant on the TV show The Apprentice. She shared about her traumatic past and how she's overcome it to inspire others in life and in education.

You have to be able to say what the truth about me is and stand on that. A great way to do it, I've actually got cards that I give out. I give a card to someone and it says the truth about me by whoever. They hand it to someone and they write on the back something that is true about that person and you keep it with you. When you are thinking that I am just useless, you get the card out and say "That's the truth about me." Then you stand on that truth.

Paul: What motivates you?

Jaz: At first I thought it was this desire not to hide anymore. Because I was doing literacy, I have been doing literacy for 25 years and people would come up to me and say, "It's amazing what you have done, it's changed our school, and it's changed our town." I was travelling abroad and "You have changed our country and the government." I am like "Yeah that's great." It was good, but I knew I wasn't being honest with myself about why I was doing it, because I was hiding. I was ashamed and scared of what people would think about me if I told the truth.

At the beginning what motivated me was I want to be honest and stop hiding. I want to stop feeling ashamed. Then as The Apprentice TV show came out, my youngest baby brother who is one down from me took a heroin overdose and died. If you have lost someone it doesn't matter how much you know about what happens after they die it still tears you in half.

There was a point after that when I was standing at the sink washing up and suddenly thought "No, no it's not ok, I have to do something because I know how to survive. I know what it takes to get through and I am not sharing it."

It is like me finishing a race and celebrating and there are people collapsed at the second lap. I know something that can help them and I am not sharing it. It's wrong and it was this real "It's not ok."

I am going to do something about that, so this is redemptive I think. It's me saying "There is more. I'm not going to settle for myself or anyone."

Paul: How have you been able to inspire teachers here in the Holy Land?

Jaz: I have been more inspired than inspiring them. What I have met, especially at this school, is people who have such a heart for supporting and helping.

Teaching in the Holy Land and teachers all over the place have one thing in common, they all put in above and beyond what is needed to try and do their best, and that costs them. It costs them in their own health and it costs them in their own personal lives. I know I was teaching and my children drew a picture of our family. They drew daddy and the other three kids, and Jacob then drew me and I was on my laptop. I was like, "Oh no I've got to change this."

One of the ways that I hope that I have inspired them is to take on board the agency and capacity you have. It's not about being the best of everything. It's about your personal best.

One thing I do, I give teachers a badge at the end of training. There are four very powerful words on that badge, four words to stand by and it says 'Our work changes lives'. I say I only want you to wear this if you believe it, and if you do believe it and you do wear it, then you need to start owning it.

That is one of the things that I hope I have inspired them to take on, ownership of what incredible gifts they bring when they teach.

Paul: Why did you go on the TV show The Apprentice?