First year DeKalb teacher: Valedictorian to financial analyst to what really mattered: Teaching math

The AJC first wrote about Genetta Reeves when she was the first black valedictorian at Jonesboro High School with a scholarship to Howard University in Washington. She lived up to that early promise, graduating Howard in 2013 with a degree in mathematics and working as a financial analyst.

Still, something was missing in her life, a sense of making a difference in the world. Reeves had always tutored kids and realized she belonged in classroom. On Monday, Reeves gets that chance. It will be her first day as a math teacher at DeKalb's Cedar Grove High school after earning a master's degree in teaching and working under a master teacher through a Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship.

I urge you to watch this video interview that AJC multimedia journalist Erica Hernandez and I did with Reeves this week. You will be impressed and reassured about the future of education.

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