This article is part of a series by The Vicksburg Post, in partnership with the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce, featuring each of the Educator of the Year nominees.

 

For those not in education, finishing sixth grade and moving to middle school might not be considered one of life’s biggest milestones. But, for Pam Parman, school counselor at Bowmar Elementary School, it is a particular step in a student’s life on which she puts tremendous importance.

“As a school counselor, it is my job to prepare our students for their lives after leaving Bowmar,” Parman said. “Who will you choose to be when you leave this building for the last time? While the topic is important for all of our students, it is especially imperative to our sixth graders.”

She said that work includes a special unit that “connects these students to their individual futures and the world around them in order to better prepare them for not only junior high school, but also life after high school graduation.”

This is Parman’s seventh year as Bowmar’s school counselor. She is a finalist for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Educator of the Year award.

The Chamber will select and announce one elementary and one secondary teacher of the year at the chamber luncheon on Feb. 17. 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.

Parman received an associate’s degree in psychology from Hinds Junior College in 1988 before getting her bachelor’s degree in the same field from Mississippi College in 1990. In 1993, she received her master’s in educational guidance and counseling from Mississippi College.

Parman joined the Vicksburg Warren School District in 1993 as a school counselor at Redwood Elementary. From 1998 to 2009, she was a stay-at-home mother before returning to the classroom in August 2009 as a part-time tutor at Bovina Elementary and Bowmar Elementary. In 2011, she became a kindergarten teacher assistant at Bovina before moving into her current role at Bowmar in August 2014.

“It is important that we, as educators, encourage students to dream about what they want to be when they grow up,” Parman writes in her Educator of the Year application. “However, it is more important that we provide students with real-world exposure to these careers in order for them to successfully achieve these dreams.”