Florida Catholic | Former Student Returns

Former student returns to preschool as teacher's peer

AMY M. FERRARA | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 10.12.07

Molly McCollum views a bulletin board on sea creatures with a student at St. Ann Discovery School in Gulf Breeze. The now-teacher used to be a student at the preschool.
AMY M. FERRARA | FC

GULF BREEZE | Petite and cheery with straight blond hair, 18-year-old Molly McCollum hasn't changed a bit. At least not to Carol Lyvers, her former preschool teacher at St. Ann Discovery School in Gulf Breeze.

"She has the same smile," assured Lyvers. "As a little girl she was always smiling."

In fact, her smile was the recognizing factor. This year when McCollum walked through the doors of her preschool as an employee, Lyvers identified in the teenager the small, light-haired girl who used to play with toys and nap on the floor. Now they are peers.

Since McCollum was a student at the Discovery School, it has grown. Today it offers child care for babies as young as 3 months and children as old as prekindergarten. An after-school program is also available for kindergartners through third-graders.

But some things just never change. When McCollum saw Msgr. Luke Hunt, pastor of St. Ann, visit the Discovery School one afternoon this year, she remembered his visits as a special part of her own student days. Smiling, she reminisced that she used to climb on Msgr. Hunt's lap and pull the white tab out of his priest's collar. Eventually, he just started handing it to her. Now, at least 15 years later, she recently found several of them in her attic.

The daily routine may not have altered much, but Lyvers has witnessed the expansion of the Discovery School since her career began 20 years ago. In that time she has taught, managed and even served as the director for a period.

"I wanted to go back to my first love, which is in the classroom," Lyvers said. She has chosen, in these last two years before her retirement, to work with the 2- and 3-year-olds.

"I'm always so amazed at how quickly they learn and develop language skills," she said. Lyvers turned to McCollum. "It's nice to watch them blossom."

While McCollum works in the afternoons at St. Ann, she is also finishing her associate in arts degree at Pensacola Junior College before she enrolls in a four-year institution. But no matter where her future leads her, one of her first teachers will remember her smile

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Former student returns to preschool as teacher's peer

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