There is a wonderful symmetry to Michele Van Regemorter’s professional life.

As a 4^th-grader at Prairie View Elementary School, she was touched by a special teacher who inspired her to become a teacher herself. Today, she is influencing a new generation of 4^th-graders as a teacher at Terwilliger Elementary School.

“She’s a born teacher,” said principal Sandi Medeiros. “She’s just a natural at it. You can tell when you walk into her room how much she cares about her students.”

“It’s challenging, but the kids are great,” said Van Regemorter. “I’ve always known that I had a way with children, so I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Michele has just completed her first full year as a teacher. She’s certainly come a long way since she was a student in Mary Brabham’s class at Prairie View Elementary School.

“She was the kindest woman in the whole world,” says Van Regemorter of Brabham. “She was one of those teachers who really cared about kids, and that’s what made me decide that’s what I wanted to do when I grew up.”

While Van Regemorter certainly had the desire to be a teacher, she lacked the resources. She’d always known that her family would not be able to fund her college education, and expected that at the very least she’d have to take on significant student loans to pay her way through school. But in eighth grade she received an ‘incentive scholarship’ from the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation, the precursor to the Take Stock in Children scholarships now given to promising 7^th-graders. In return for her pledge to keep up her grades and remain drug and crime free, Van Regemorter was promised a college scholarship when she graduated from Hawthorne Jr./Sr. High School.

“It really made me concentrate on my schooling because I knew I’d have to work for the scholarship,” she said. “But at the same time it took a load off my shoulders, and I knew my dream would come true.”

That scholarship allowed her to attend Santa Fe Community College, then go on to the University of Florida, where she earned her teaching degree. Today she’s repaying the confidence placed in her by giving her students her best efforts.

“She’s a great teacher,” said student Kelcee Drow. “She’s taught me a lot this year, and that will help me in 5^th grade.”

“She teaches well, and she’s strict when she needs to be,” said classmate Justin Townsend. “I like her. I think she’s a really good teacher.”

“She cares about us, and we care about her a whole lot,” said Shane Lamb.

Van Regemorter says she always intended to teach in Alachua County.

“I believe in this system, I’ve seen it work,” she said. “It’s a full circle moment, to grow up in this county, to earn a scholarship, to have my college education paid for and then to come and give back to the county as a teacher.”

She also says that she’s living proof of the value of the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation and its scholarship programs, and encourages others to give to those programs.

“It’s just such a blessing for those people who can’t afford college,” she said. “It’s so worth it. You are just going to make so many people’s dreams come true.”

For information about the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation and its scholarship programs, call (352) 955-7300.