Education
Education

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

By Maureen Downey
Aug 4, 2017

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.

About the Author

Maureen Downey has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy since the 1990s.

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