TEACHER OF THE YEAR FINALIST: ‘Divine intervention’ guided Jacqueline Floyd to the classroom

ALBANY — Jacqueline Floyd thought she had her future all figured out. Then divine intervention struck.

“I initially set out to go to college and become a nurse. It was largely an attempt to please my mother, grandfather and health occupations teacher, as they all agreed I would make a fine nurse,” Floyd, one of eight finalists for Dougherty County’s 2017-18 Teacher of the Year, said. “Right before my high school graduation my mother, who was a public school educator for 45 years, asked me if I had considered becoming a teacher. I immediately replied, ‘No ma’am.’

“Needless to say, she was very disappointed in my response. When I entered college I had every intention of becoming a nurse.”

Early in her junior year, however, Floyd began to have a change of heart about her choice of careers.

“I began to ask myself if I really wanted to become a nurse or did I just want to fulfill the dreams of my loved ones?” Floyd said. “One day that same summer, I had a divine encounter where I opened up and discussed my dilemma and future goals with a classmate.

“My classmate told me to talk to God as though I was speaking with my earthly father.”

Floyd said she asked God to “order her steps.” Shortly afterwards, Floyd transferred to Albany State University and changed her major to middle grades education.

“I have often laughed with my mother that I am still a nurse; I’m just not in a hospital, I’m in a school,” Floyd said.

Now a biology teacher at Westover High School, She began her career in 1988 as a science teacher at Dougherty Middle School.

“My greatest accomplishment in education is the fact that I have played an integral role in helping shape highly productive citizens and leaders of tomorrow,” Floyd said.

The 2017-18 Teacher of the Year Dinner will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn on Front Street. The system also will recognize its retiring educators at the event.

In addition to Floyd, the other finalists are Jasamine Dixon, Albany Middle School; Chevonne Denson, Dougherty High School; Torre’ Mills, Monroe High School; Rebecca Strickland, Lake Park Elementary School; Jordan Waller, Martin Luther King Elementary School; Shane Williams, Lincoln Magnet School, and Lydia Zuern, Sherwood Acres Elementary School.