“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”
These words from Robert Frost aptly describe one of my family’s favorite teachers, Holly Bailey.
Currently a career coach with Create Foundation’s Toyota Wellspring, Holly Bailey taught various levels of science to students at Tupelo and East Union for over three decades.
Our oldest son Jacob had the honor of being her student during her earliest days of teaching seventh-grade science at Tupelo Middle School. He loved her then and never stopped loving her. She awakened his love for learning and changed the way he looked at school – and life.
Then, our younger son Chris had the distinct honor of teaching with Holly Bailey in his earliest days of teaching seventh grade at East Union Attendance Center. By then, she was a veteran biology high school teacher, as she and the entire staff at East Union helped and encouraged Chris so much in his first years as an educator.
But our sons were only two of the thousands of kids who grew to love “Ms. Bailey” – and the list continues to grow even now, as she is no longer a traditional classroom teacher.
The truth is that Holly Bailey simply took her love of learning outside the walls of her classroom into the classroom of life.
The students she coaches now at East Union are given the chance to explore real-life career options via Toyota Wellspring provided to them through the Create Foundation.
But Holly Bailey and the other career coaches in the eight school districts within the PUL Alliance of Pontotoc, Union, and Lee Counties offer students much more than simple career coaching. It’s all about taking the students beyond the classroom to expose, prepare, and connect them to the amazing opportunities awaiting them in the work world.
For older high school students, that process begins when these coaches work individually and as a unified team to literally help students assess their personal aptitudes and preferences for learning and working, through state-of-the-art testing, as well as job shadowing and actual paying internships at job sites that fit each student’s needs and desires. Over a hundred students benefited from this program this year.
Photo credit: Holly Bailey
But Holly Bailey’s influence starts much earlier, even working with East Union students in early elementary grades to build a scaffold for learning about career paths. Bailey and her cohorts strive to give these younger students a chance to discover their love of learning and channel that love into exploring all sorts of career possibilities.
Honestly, it’s hard to talk to Holly Bailey about her career coaching and not get just as excited as she is for her students and their futures.
“We love getting to show them career paths that they did not even know were available,” said Holly Bailey. “We find out what they like, introduce them to other people and places in that field, and then give them a chance to experience that job for themselves.”
But it’s not just these “hard” work skills that Bailey focuses on as she coaches. She also strives to help her students learn the “soft” skills of basic communication, integrity, and good manners.
She passionately explained how looking people in the eye while talking, being prompt, and writing thank-you notes are just as important in the workplace as writing resumes and honing technology skills.
But make no mistake! Those skills are so important in today’s ever-changing world of workplace technology. That’s why she constantly looks for new opportunities for her students to experience cutting-edge technological career opportunities.
She recently took two young women, sophomores at East Union, to Ole Miss for a behind-the-scenes look into the media room of Ole Miss baseball, with the added bonus of enjoying a game afterwards.
Both of these East Union girls are interested in careers in the field of digital media, and with the gracious help of Jim Holder, producer of Broadcast Services at Ole Miss, they were presented with a first-hand look at the sports broadcasting process.
“They loved it,” said Holly Bailey, “but honestly, I was overwhelmed by the technology. I would not have been able to function in that setting, especially in the darkness of that Ole Miss sports media center.
“But our girls loved seeing how many people it took on and off the field, working together in so many ways to produce just one game. It was right up their alley.”
And that is exactly what she strives to do every day as a career coach – take her students out of the classroom to explore the career path that best fits them.
Truly, Holly Bailey’s excitement for teaching is contagious, as she continues to awaken a love of learning in everyone she encounters – including the Lucius family.
