Porters Chapel Academy feels like home to third grade teacher Kay Angel.

Angel has taught at the school for 29 years and spent 17 of those years in second grade and the last 12 years in third grade.

“This is the school I started with. My kids were little and we just started off here together, and it’s kind of like home to me,” Angel said. “I love the atmosphere.”

Her favorite part of being an educator is building relationships with her students and also knowing she has taught them a lesson or a concept that will last a lifetime.

“I really love getting to know the kids. When you see one that has struggled and that light finally comes on, that just does it for me. It makes me feel like I’m really helping,” Angel said.

Sometimes being a teacher can be difficult with a lot of pressures, but Angel said one kind, encouraging word from a student can put everything into perspective.

“All teachers get kind of down, with so much on us, but it always seems like I will have a former student come up and say, “You just meant so much to me and inspired me just a little bit,’” she said, making all the hard work worth every minute.

Being a teacher is something Angel was inspired to do by one of her own teachers growing up. The patience and understanding Angel received from that teacher was enough to make her want to spread the same kind gesture to children in her own classroom.

“When I was little, I had trouble in school, and I just remember one teacher who really, really helped me. (She was) Very patient and that just inspired me. I really did, I wanted to do this,” she said.

Angel is a Natchez native who attended Trinity Episcopal Day School.

“I grew up in a small Christian school, so when there was an opening at Porters Chapel it just felt like that’s where I needed to be,” she said.

She has lived in Vicksburg for the past 33 years. Her husband recently retired from Grand Gulf Nuclear Generating Station and is currently teaching seventh and eighth grade science at Porters Chapel part-time.

Angel said she doesn’t have any plans to retire anytime soon, but she said she is tempted to move closer to her daughter in south Mississippi so she can spend more time with her grandchildren.

“We go down there quite often on the weekend,” she said.

Her son graduated from PCA in 2001 and her daughter graduated in 2003.

“Porters Chapel has just been home. It’s a good atmosphere. People come together whenever there is a need,” Angel said. “It has just been amazing.”