White named 2021 Kentucky Go Teach Teacher Ambassador

As an educator, Amanda White (03, 07) must be doing something right.  

Earlier this year, the first-grade teacher at Straub Elementary School in Maysville was named one of Kentucky’s 24 Outstanding Educators by the Kentucky Department of Education and Valvoline Inc. Now, White has been named one of the 2021 Kentucky Go Teach Teacher Ambassadors.  

“I found out about the Ambassador program when I received my 2020 Kentucky Teacher Achievement Award back in September,” White said. “I was thrilled to receive word just a few weeks ago that I had been chosen to help represent education in our great state.”  

White moved from Sardinia, Ohio, to attend Morehead State University. It was during her tour of the school and the Ernst and Sara Lane Volgenau College of Education that White decided she wanted to become a teacher. She said classroom experience with instructors like Dr. Melinda Willis, associate professor of Early Childhood, Elementary, and Special Education, who showed White how to “not just read to my children but immerse them in the story.”  

“I looked forward to her class every single time because it didn’t feel like class, it was learning but it didn’t feel like it,” White said. “I do the same now with my kids. I make sure my lessons are engaging, warm and entertaining.”  

White earned her Bachelor of Arts in Early Elementary, P-5 in 2003, and Master of Arts in Elementary Education, P-5, in 2007. She began working in the Mason County School District right after graduation and has worked at Straub Elementary School for the last 18 years.  

“There are so many dreams that I have for my school, district and state, and my hope is to bring all these pieces and people together,” White said. “I hope to work with colleges, especially my alma mater to recruit the next generation of amazing teachers. I also hope to help current teachers excel in their field and be continuously upping their game as an educator. Kentucky’s future is so bright, and we are so very blessed to have some of the hardest and most talented teachers working with our kids.”  

For more information about MSU’s Volgenau College of Education and its programs, call 606-783-2162 or visit www.moreheadstate.edu/education.   

Morehead State University’s Volgenau College of Education offers a reduced tuition rate to all Kentucky schoolteachers and other educators enrolled in courses within our College of Education. For more details on the reduced tuition offer, visit www.moreheadstate.edu/kyeducators.