Jessica Folke graduated from high school in 2004 and began attending Delaware Technical & Community College in Mathematics Secondary Education that fall. Jessica decided on the community college because “it did not make sense to spend so much on college and then have a huge debt of student loans to repay.”
In her first year, Jessica realized that older students were not a good fit for her and that she worked better with little kids. In the mean time, Delaware Tech was beginning an Elementary Education program that was part of a connected degree with Wilmington University and Delaware State University, both with National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs (NCATE) approved programs.
Jessica changed her major to Elementary Education and was able to live at home, save money, and substitute teach while taking classes. Her experience at Delaware Tech were positive and she said, “My instructors were always willing to help and available to give me extra time if I did not understand something.”
Jessica completed her associate’s degree at Delaware Tech and because of the Delaware Tech- Wilmington University connected degree, Jessica continued seamlessly to Wilmington University where she majored in Elementary Education. She was encouraged by Wilmington University to take the Praxis II in both Elementary and Special Education so she did and she is dually certified.
She graduated from Wilmington University in December 2008 and obtained a job as a paraeducator for the remainder of the 2008-09 school year in the Indian River School District. In the summer of 2009, Jessica was hired as a full time third grade teacher and was assigned to Georgetown Elementary in the Indian River School District.
When asked what she liked best about teaching, Jessica replied, “The kids. I like being part of their lives.” |
