More than two-thirds of this year’s class of Muscogee County School District Teacher of the Year honorees have a Columbus State University degree hanging on their walls. In fact, a quarter of them have two, and sometimes three, CSU degrees.

The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation (MEEF), which coordinates the annual Teacher of the Year selection and recognition process on the school system’s behalf, announced this year’s honorees on Jan. 24 in the university’s Legacy Hall. Of the 55 educators named teachers of the year by their respective schools, 38 are graduates of Columbus State.

Each year, the staff of every MCSD school selects the teacher of the year for their school. Those school honorees then apply to be the district’s teacher of the year. MEEF’s selection committee, comprising Columbus business and education leaders, evaluates the applications to narrow the field to 10 semifinalists. The committee then interviews those semifinalists to determine its three finalists, which the committee then observes in the classroom to determine its top teacher for that year.

MEEF will host its annual MCSD Teacher of the Year Gala, where it will announce its system-wide teacher of the year winner, on Thursday, May 9 at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center. Tickets will be available to the public for purchase from the RiverCenter Box Office beginning March 15.

Vanessa Ellis ’11, ’19 (pictured) was the last Columbus State graduate to claim the system’s top honors, which she did in 2022. In 2024, she was named statewide runner-up for the Georgia Teacher of the Year.

According to the Muscogee County School District, more than half of the system’s 5,500 educators, school counselors and administrators hold degrees from Columbus State. That is due in part to its “CSU Teaching Contract Guarantee” partnership launched in 2019. The guarantee ensures a system teaching contract for any Columbus State teacher education graduate who passes the student teaching component of their degree, and who meets Georgia Professional Standards Commission induction certification requirements.

Students can pursue or deepen their teaching, counseling and leadership careers in the university’s College of Education & Health Professions, which offers a wide range of in-person, fully online or hybrid programs for aspiring elementary, secondary and higher education professionals. Those programs lead to bachelor’s degrees in education (B.S.Ed.), master of arts in teaching (M.A.T.) degrees, educational specialist (Ed.S.) degrees, and doctorate in education (Ed.D.) degrees. Students can also pursue graduate-level add-on certificates and graduate endorsements.