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.

 

“One student said to me, ‘I thought you were being too difficult in accounting when I was one cent short and you made me find that one penny to balance,'” Vicksburg High School business technology teacher Faye Cornelius said. But that same student told her it was that toughness, that attention to detail that led to their success in business.

Cornelius, who is in her seventh year at Vicksburg High School, is one of the finalists for the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce’s Educator of the Year.

In an education career that has spanned more than 40 years, Cornelius said much of her instruction focuses on real life and everyday needs and actions.

“A lesson that defines me as a teacher concerns personal finance and development,” Cornelius writes in her Educator of the Year application. “I plan time for each student to share how they pay for their cell phones and other necessities out of their allowances and budgets. I have taught students the importance of having a budget, even as teenagers, and the importance of saving or paying yourself first.”

Cornelius earned an Associate of Arts in business education from Jones Junior College before getting her bachelor’s in business education from Jackson State University. In 2009, she completed her master’s in business education at Mississippi College.

Before joining the team at Vicksburg High School in 2013, Cornelius was a business teacher at Hinds Agricultural High School in Utica. She has also worked as an adult education teacher at Jackson Public Schools’ Career Development Center and worked for more than 20 years as an administrative assistant with the Hinds County School District and Piney Woods School.

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.