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Serena Williams Opens Up About Loving Recess, Spelling Bees And Helping Students Have Their #BestSchoolDay

"Having a good education has opened so many different doors for me."
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Editor, HuffPost Video

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Serena Williams -- you know, the world's No. 1 women's tennis player -- is opening up about her favorite memories from school to help you understand the importance of having a good education. From competing for prizes in her third grade spelling bees to playing dodgeball at recess, watch the athlete explain how her own experience in school inspired her to help fund schools in Los Angeles through DonorsChoose, a nonprofit organization that makes it easy to give to public schools in need.

This post is part of #BestSchoolDay, a national fundraising movement to ensure students have the supplies and opportunities they need to succeed. Visit here to see a map of all the classroom projects being funded and join more than 50 actors, athletes, entrepreneurs and philanthropists in supporting classrooms across America. To join the conversation on Twitter, use the hashtag #BestSchoolDay.

Before You Go

Photos Of Girls Going To School Around The World
India(01 of50)
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Kashmiri school girls playing during recess in Kulhama district, Bandipora on August 11, 2015 in Srinagar, India. (credit:Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)
China(02 of50)
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Chinese children attend a class at the Jinqao Center Primary School in Shanghai on September 1, 2014. (credit:Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images )
India(03 of50)
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Children sit on the ground with a temporary roof to protect them against the strong sun in a small village called Bilwadi in the state of Rajasthan. The children who come from nomadic families are 6-14 years olds who are taught mathematics as well as reading and writing in Hindi. This photo was taken on October 29, 2014. (credit:Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket/Getty Images)
Iran(04 of50)
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Iranian school girls observe Members of Parliament discussing a draft to limit photographer's and cameramen's access to cover parliament's open sessions in Tehran on February 27, 2013. (credit:Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)
Hong Kong(05 of50)
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School students walk down a street in Hong Kong on July 4, 2016. (credit:ANTHONY WALLACE via Getty Images)
Brazil(06 of50)
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Girls attend a class at a school in the forest in Xapuri, Acre State, in northwestern Brazil, on October 8, 2014. (credit:Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
Iraq(07 of50)
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An Iraqi school girl walks up the bank of a river after crossing the waterway on a small wooden boat in the district of Al-Mishikhab, some 25 kilometers south of the holy city of Najaf, as they head to school on April 1, 2015. According to Iraqi women in this area boat is one of the only ways for them to travel. (credit:HAIDAR HAMDANI via Getty Images)
Afghanistan(08 of50)
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Afghan schoolgirls board a bus in Qara Zaghan village in Baghlan province on May 7, 2013. (credit:Sham Marai/AFP/Getty Images)
Kenya(09 of50)
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Two school girls walk towards a commuter train in Kikuyu, Kenya, on September 13, 2016. The railway in Kenya has a long history, with the British laying the country's first rail in 1896. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)
Russia(10 of50)
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High-school graduates celebrate the last day of their classes in Moscow's Red Square on May 25, 2011. (credit:Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)
Bangladesh(11 of50)
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Savar, Bangladesh - April 13: Girls in school uniform walking along a road after school on April 13, 2016 in Savar, Bangladesh. (credit:Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images)
Haiti (12 of50)
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Brazilian UN peacekeepers distribute juice and crackers to students at the Immaculate Conception School February 6, 2013 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (credit:Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images)
England(13 of50)
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Withington Independent Girls School students celebrate getting good grades on their A level exams on August 15, 2013 in Manchester, England. (credit:Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Morocco(14 of50)
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A Moroccan girl walks to the school in Taghzirt, an isolated village in the el-Haouz province in the High Atlas Mountains south of Marrakesh on March 4, 2016. (credit:FADEL SENNA via Getty Images)
Pakistan(15 of50)
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Pakistani school girls pray for the early recovery of child activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head in a Taliban assassination attempt, at their school in Peshawar on October 12, 2012. (credit:A. Majeed/AFP/Getty Images)
Kenya(16 of50)
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Schoolgirls participate in a lesson in Kilifi, Kenya on June 31, 2010. The students are part of an initiative called "Moving the Goalspost" which sponsors female students from the Kilifi district where drop-out rates are high due to early marriages, teen pregnancy and a traditional bias towards educating male siblings over female. (credit:Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)
Sri Lanka(17 of50)
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Sri Lankan Muslim school girls stand on the edge of a sea port in Colombo on May 20, 2013, after traveling from their town of Kalmunai, over 231 miles away. (credit:Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images)
South Korea(18 of50)
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Students take the annual Scolastic Aptitude Test at the Poongmun high school in Seoul on November 13, 2014. (credit:Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
Central African Republic (19 of50)
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A student stands in a classroom at a school in the capital city of Bangui, Central African Republic on March 12, 2014. (credit:Thomas Koehler/Photothek/Getty Images)
Indonesia (20 of50)
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Two Islamic school children prepare for prayer during a school trip in Jakarta on October 18, 2012. (credit:Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images)
Cuba(21 of50)
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Cuban schoolgirls read during class on November 13, 2012 in Havana. (credit:STR/AFP/Getty Images )
North Korea(22 of50)
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Primary School students in North Korea on May 16, 2009. (credit:Eric Lafforgue/Getty Images)
Iraq(23 of50)
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Iraqi school girls walk home in Tikrit on September 22, 2005. (credit:Tauseef Mustafa/Getty Images)
Ecuador (24 of50)
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Girls pose at a rural school at La Palizada in Tulcan, Carchi province, in Ecuador close to the Colombian border on November 7, 2012. (credit:Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)
China(25 of50)
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A class of students run during a physical training exercise at the temporary campus of the "Walking School" of Xu Xiangyang Education and Training Group on December 22, 2005, on the outskirts of China's southwestern city of Chengdu. (credit:Liu Jin/Getty Images)
Kosovo(26 of50)
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A Kosovo Albanian girl answers a question in a sociology class at Sami Frasheri high school in Pristina, March 2007. (At the time Kosovo was in the process of formalizing its independence from Serbia.) (credit:Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
Zimbabwe(27 of50)
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A young schoolgirl listens to a concert at the Glen Forest Development Centre on December 3, 2012 in Harare, Zimbabwe. (credit:Raphael Huenerfauth/Photothek/Getty Images)
Germany(28 of50)
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Students of the 7th and 8th classes swimming during a school triathlon on June 19, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. (credit:Konzept Und Bild/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images )
China(29 of50)
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Students read outdoors at the Jigmei Gyaltsen Girls Welfare School on April 21, 2006 in Maqin County of Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. The Jigmei Gyaltsen Girls Welfare School, established in 2005, was built to provide free education for impoverished female students in pasturing areas. The school currently has about 96 students and 10 teachers, teaching Tibetan, Chinese, mathematics, art and other courses. (credit:China Photos/Getty Images)
Haiti(30 of50)
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School children in uniform play in Isla de Laganave, Haiti. (credit:Eye Ubiquitous/UIG/Getty Images)
Nepal (31 of50)
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School girls in orange uniforms walk to school along a trail around Manaslu Trek, Nepal. (credit:Education Images/UIG/Getty Images)
Bangladesh(32 of50)
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Children learning their lessons at home, in a village in Netrok. (credit:Majority World/UIG/Getty Images)
Cuba(33 of50)
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School girls wearing school uniforms on the way home on June 1, 2009 in Trinidad, Cuba. (credit:Konzept Und Bild/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images)
Afghanistan(34 of50)
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Afghani girls raise their hands to answer a question in math class. (credit:Wally Skalij/Getty Images)
Vietnam (35 of50)
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H'mong students exercise at Hoang Thu Pho primary school in Bac Ha, Lao Cai, Vietnam. (credit:Chau Doan/LightRocket/Getty Images)
France(36 of50)
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Girls hug each other on the first day of school outside the European School of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France on September 1, 2015. (credit:Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images)
Mozambique(37 of50)
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Students in school uniforms pose for a photo on September 29, 2015 in Beira, Mozambique. (credit:Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Images)
Mexico(38 of50)
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Two girls walk after receiving their meal at the Adolfo Lopez Mateos school, in Villa de Zaachila, Oaxaca State, Mexico on July 5, 2016. (credit:RONALDO SCHEMIDT via Getty Images)
Gaza(39 of50)
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Palestinian school girls walk during a sandstorm in Gaza City on September 9, 2015. (credit:Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
Yemen(40 of50)
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Yemeni girls listen to their teacher on their fist day of school at a public institution in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on November 1, 2015. (credit:Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)
South Korea(41 of50)
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Students wearing traditional hanbok dresses bow as they attend a graduation and coming-of-age ceremony at the Dongmyeong girl's high school in Seoul on February 12, 2015. (credit:Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
India(42 of50)
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Indian schoolchildren pray during morning assembly at their school in Shimla on December 17, 2014, as they pay tribute to slain Pakistani schoolchildren and staff after an attack on an army school in the restive city of Peshawar. (credit:STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)
Mexico (43 of50)
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Children play during a break after returning to school following a two-months strike of teachers due to criminal threats, in Acapulco, Mexico on January 27, 2015. (credit:Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images)
Yemen(44 of50)
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Yemeni schoolgirls attend an anti-mine and unexploded ordnance awareness campaign in a school in Sanaa on December 17, 2014. (credit:Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)
The United States(45 of50)
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Students listen to instructions during a coding class at The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria in New York on September 17, 2015. (credit:Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images)
Ghana (46 of50)
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School girls head home through their cocoa-producing village on November 11, 2015 in Akyekyere, Ghana. (credit:Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images)
Thailand(47 of50)
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Young female students in a "pondok," a school providing general and religious studies on June 29, 2015 in Narathiwat, Thailand. (credit:Thierry Falise/LightRocket/Getty Images)
Japan (48 of50)
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Student walk to school the rain in June 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. (credit:Giang Vu Hoang Pham/Getty Images)
The United States(49 of50)
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A girls' track team runs through traffic as they travel to McKinley High School where they practice on May 28, 2013 in Washington, DC. (credit:Katherine Frey/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
Russia(50 of50)
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Cadets laugh on the bench in the garden of the Defence Ministry Girls Boarding School on September 9, 2008, in Moscow, Russia. Russian President Medvedev took the decision in January 2008 to create an academy for the daughters of Russian servicemen serving far away from the capital, without the opportunity for a good education and for those who lost their father in post-Soviet armed conflicts. (credit:Alexey Sazonov/Getty Images)
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