Diving in: Finding a Meaningful, Fulfilling Career in Education
| by Hannah Sparling
Jennifer Mehrmann had a lot of time during COVID to think about her career. She had a bachelor’s degree in psychology but wasn’t sure what to do with it. And she’d spent the past decade-plus working at Whole Foods, starting at 16 as a bagger and moving up to a front-end supervisor role.
Jennifer enjoyed her job, but she started to consider her options:
With her bachelor’s, she could become a social worker, but she feared a career of being overworked and underappreciated.
She could become a therapist, but that would require a doctorate, and she didn’t have the appetite for that much schooling.
Then she started to think about teaching. She had several aunts and uncles who were teachers, and the idea intrigued her. Plus, she loved leading team trainings at work, which involved teaching adults. Going from that to teaching children seemed like a natural next step.
“I really wanted to find a career where I would be fulfilled and impacting the future,” she said.
She applied for her Florida Statement of Eligibility, and in 2022, she started in the middle of the school year as a 4th grade teacher for Renaissance Charter School at University.
“I kind of just scooted right into teaching,” she said. “I dove right in.”
From New Teacher to Lead Teacher
Jennifer was wracked with nerves on her first day at Renaissance Charter. She tried to think back to her own time in elementary school and how her first-grade teacher had managed the class.
Starting in the middle of the school year was especially challenging, she said, but the staff at Renaissance Charter was welcoming and supportive. At the end of Day 1, Jennifer was exhausted and a little overwhelmed but still eager for Day 2.
The more experience she got, the more she learned and fell in love with teaching. This year, she was promoted to Lead Teacher for the 4th grade.
Earning her Professional Certification
Jennifer enrolled in Moreland University’s TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program to earn her professional Florida teacher certification. Her school has a partnership with Moreland, which meant Jennifer got full tuition coverage for TEACH-NOW.
She was thrilled by the speed of the program (it is “unheard of,” she said, to earn your certification in just 9 months). And in fact, she enjoyed TEACH-NOW so much she went on to earn her master’s degree through Moreland as well, graduating in October with her M.Ed. with a focus on special education.
“Honestly, it’s been a great experience,” she said. “I loved all the modules. All the assignments are super user-friendly, and I like that the professors mold the curriculum into what the students need.”
Moreland is flexible and accommodating, Jennifer said, and her instructors understood that she and the other members of her cohort were adults with full-time jobs, families, and busy lives.
“Moreland was realistic about real life happening,” she said. “I appreciated that, because it allowed me to have time at home, but also to figure out this career of teaching.”
‘Go for It’
Three years ago, Jennifer was a retail supervisor unsure of where to take her career. Today, she’s a Lead Teacher with an M.Ed. and dreams of one day going into school administration or an educational specialist role. She still can’t believe how quickly everything changed.
Changing careers was a risk, but it pays off every day, she said. It pays off when she sees her students master a new skill, gain the courage to read out loud, or make huge leaps on their state test scores. It pays off whenever a student or a parent says thank you.
“When you get them at the beginning of the year, I kind of treat it like a blank slate,” she said. “And then you see the progression, you see them growing. You see them adapting to your teaching style and becoming a community within the classroom.”
For anyone else considering a pivot to teaching, Jennifer has 3 questions:
- No. 1: Do you have patience?
- No. 2: Do you like working with children?
- No. 3: Do you want a fulfilling career “and 24 kids loving on you every day, all day?”
“If you have a calling,” she said, “just go for it.”
Earn your professional teaching certification in as little as 9 months with Moreland University. From there, you have the option to add on a master’s degree in just 3 additional months.
Our programs are fully accredited and 100% online, with rolling admissions.
Apply for free, and you’ll hear back within 2 business days.
