UM Teacher Candidate Ashlyn Haskins is thrilled to begin her career as a teacher this fall. The Puckett, Mississippi, native is currently finishing her last days at the School of Education as a student worker at the North Mississippi Education Consortium (NMEC), where she has worked throughout both her undergraduate and master’s studies at Ole Miss. For Haskins, education is a family calling.

“I became a teacher because my grandfather was a principal for 30 years [Read More…]

Ole Miss graduate student Jessica Peralta is all set to begin her first year of teaching next fall and the Mooreville native has already received a substantial bonus—she’s the first Mississippian to ever receive a Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Fellowship worth $175,000.

A five-year fellowship for early-career STEM teachers across the country, the program will offer financial support to assist Peralta with grants for classroom materials, professional development, networking [Read More…]

In 2009, University of Mississippi DeSoto student Ashley Castille was hard at work as a mortgage processor in the greater Memphis area not expecting that a sinking housing market would drastically change the direction of her career. When the recession hit, the Olive Branch resident was laid off.

But setbacks aside, Castille set her professional future in a positive direction. Today, she is only weeks away from graduating Summa Cum Laude with a degree in elementary education [Read More…]

When most tourists visit island nations in the Caribbean, they pack swimsuits, sunscreen and perhaps a good book. But when Frances “Cookie” Harris went to Haiti in December, she carried a duffel bag jam-packed with 60 pounds of books.

The eight-day visit was the San Antonio native’s second trip to Haiti. It was also the beginning of what the University of Mississippi graduate student hopes will be meaningful [Read More…]

Ole Miss alumnus Joseph Wallace doesn’t have your typical teacher’s resume. After graduating from UM’s College of Liberal Arts in 2008 and School of Law in 2011, passing the bar in Mississippi and Tennessee and two years in private practice, he decided to chase a desire he just couldn’t shake—teaching.

In 2013, the Corinth native stopped taking new clients and applied to the Mississippi Teacher Corps (MTC), one of the most competitive alternate route [Read More…]