South Lenoir senior’s plan to teach gets boost with scholarship to ECU

Isabelle Vernon, a senior at South Lenoir High School, is headed to East Carolina University as a Maynard Scholar, the winner of a four-year scholarship specifically designed to prepare potential teachers for the classroom in North Carolina.

Isabelle Vernon had harbored a desire to be a school teacher since she was in the eighth grade, but when the South Lenoir High School senior got the call – literally got the call – she hung up by accident.

“I was freaking out, because I had just gotten called by somebody very important, telling me some very important information, and I accidentally hung up on them,” Isabelle said. “I promptly called back and apologized, and then I got the good news.”

The good news was this: she had been named a Maynard Scholar at East Carolina University, earning a four-year scholarship that’s geared specifically to preparing potential teachers for the classroom in North Carolina.

The scholarship, valued at $20,000, is one of 20 awarded to prospective teachers as part of the College of Education Community of Scholars Program.

The scholarship gives shape to an ambition that, fittingly enough, revealed itself in a middle school classroom. “I was sitting in history class one day and something just clicked in me,” Isabelle recalled. “I realized I really wanted to help students love learning as much as I do.”

Her journey to the Maynard began in January with an online application, which included essay questions, and an extensive interview at ECU before students and faculty from the College of Education. She was notified of her success earlier this month.

She’ll bring to her teacher education some experience and family history. Her grandmother, Jane Vernon, taught at Southwood Elementary for more than 30 years. 

“Some of my fondest memories are just hanging out with her and seeing the behind-the-scenes at school,” said Isabelle, the 17-year-old daughter of Ryan and Mindy Vernon.

She’s deepened her insights into education as a tutor for kindergartners and for Math I students in the peer-to-peer program at South Lenoir.

“I’ve been in school so I know what a classroom looks like. I’ve seen it from the prospective of being a student, so being a tutor I get to sit in the classes and I get to not only work one-on-one with the students but I get to watch them learn and watch as the light bulbs go off and pick out what works and what doesn’t for them,” Isabelle said.

If that sounds as if Isabelle has found her niche, Candice Tyndall, the South Lenoir school counselor who works with seniors, agrees. “Isabelle is an outstanding young lady with a true educator’s heart,” Tyndall said. “She possesses all the wonderful qualities of a great educator and I can’t wait for her to come back to our community and share her love for education with our future.” 

As a student herself, Isabelle is president of the South Lenoir’s National Honor Society chapter, active in the SCA and captain of the soccer team. She’s been a cheerleader since she was a freshman.

She plans to teach history – “I just really love looking back at history and learning about things that people did and why they did them and how that affects us today,” she said – and hopes to emulate her favorite LCPS teachers, those “who were really good at establishing personal connections and had activities that made learning fun.”