While student teaching at Grovetown Elementary School last year, SheKinah Bennett heard a familiar name.
A new principal was coming to the school midyear, and Bennett wondered if it could possibly be her sixth grade teacher from Columbia Middle School.
“That would be kind of crazy if it was the same Ms. Barnett,” said Bennett of LaToya Jackson-Barnett. “She was walking down the hall, and I just know my face was beaming, hers was too. And it was just like ‘Oh my goodness Ms. Barnett.’ We gave each other a big hug, and everything was great.”
Now Bennett is readying for her first year as a first grade teacher at Grovetown, and she’s excited to be working with Jackson-Barnett as her principal.
‘She’s always been so supportive. I have no worries about this year,” she said.
And Jackson-Barnett said she’s looking forward to working with Bennett and mentoring her.
“She was my baby. I was so happy to see her do her student teaching here. She’s a natural,” said Jackson-Barnett.
Jackson-Barnett said she likes hiring young teachers because even though she’s an administrator now, she’s still a teacher at heart and wants to be their mentor.
Not only does Bennett have one of her former teachers in her corner at Grovetown, she already has years of learning and hands-on training under her belt.
Bennett has been preparing for this time in her life since she was a student at Evans High School and entered the Columbia County School District’s Teaching as a Profession pathway, signing a letter of intent to pursue a career in education.
“I became interested in teaching because teachers made a large impact on me growing up. They made learning fun. I struggled in a few areas such as reading, and I want to help children just like my teachers did,” said Bennett.
Her high school coursework allowed her to learn about child development and the ways children learned as well as provided opportunities to go into elementary school classrooms to experience what teachers did on a daily basis. The concepts she learned in high school provided a solid foundation for her coursework at Augusta University where she majored in elementary education.
Augusta University partnered with the school district to create a framework for students wishing to become teachers, according to a 2023 article on the Augusta University Jagwire.
“Now, Teaching as a Profession pathway is in all five high schools in Columbia County. So, what that allows us to do is to build relationships with those high school students while they are in these pathways. It creates a seamless bridge, hopefully from their high school to our university and then back to them teaching in Columbia County,” said Judi Wilson, College of Education and Human Development dean, in the article.
Bennett is among the first students to finish that circuit of Columbia County student to Augusta University student to Columbia County teacher. She said the TAP program put her ahead of the game in earning her degree because she was already familiar with many concepts she encountered at AU. She didn’t have to take one class at AU because she’d already studied the coursework.
School starts on Aug. 4 and Bennett is preparing her classroom this week to provide a warm and inviting space for her students to learn.
“I’ m very excited to meet my students and get started with them,” she said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
