Part of an ongoing series featuring the teachers nominated for Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Teacher of the Year honors.

Mary Ann Lindsey said teaching is an experience like no other.

Lindsey, a nominee for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Elementary Teacher of the Year, is a first grade teacher at Dana Road Elementary.

A graduate of Alcorn State University, she has been an educator at Dana Road for 20 years — five as an art teacher and the last 15 molding the minds of first-graders.

“I have the wonderful opportunity to mold minds every day,” Lindsey said. “I decided to become an educator because I feel that being able to teach the future leaders of the world is priceless.”

She said there are many aspects she enjoys about teaching, but her greatest job is teaching her pupils to read.

“I teach first grade, and watching a student learn to read is very rewarding to me,” Lindsey said. “The excitement in their eyes is priceless.”

Lindsey is honored to be the Teacher of the Year at Dana Road.

“Most of all, I am humbled,” Lindsey said. “Dana Road has some of the best teachers in the district, and being chosen by my peers is an honor.”

The Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce will choose one elementary and one secondary teacher of the year at the chamber luncheon Feb. 20. The winner of each award will receive $1,000 from Ameristar Casino and the runner-up for each award will receive $500 from Mutual Credit Union.

If selected as the top educator, Lindsey said it would be a great honor, and she will continue to do what she has done for the last two decades regardless if she is chosen.

“I will continue to motivate, encourage, and inspire students and teachers,” Lindsey said.