Eric Jenkins was, in many ways, a typical undergraduate student at Indiana University. Undeclared for his major during his freshman year, he faced unexpected health problems and a surgery. Once he returned to IU for his sophomore year, he was walking through Dunn’s Woods when he had what he described as a “lightning strike epiphany moment” and realized teaching was the best way for him to make the biggest impact on the world.

From that epiphany moment, Jenkins went on to get his bachelor's degree in secondary education in 2007 and is now an English teacher at Franklin Community High School. This month, he was named the 2024 Indiana Teacher of the Year.

After a couple weeks of letting the shock of being named Teacher of the Year sink in, Jenkins is now embracing the honor.

“I get to be the ambassador for public education for the state and get to share all the experience of being a public school teacher in Indiana: the good, bad, and the ugly, and really get to advocate for a new generation of teachers and for the ones who have chosen to stay,” he said. “It’s not about me being the best teacher. It’s just that I get to represent all teachers. I get to be the advocate and the ambassador. It's not about being the best, it’s about sharing what’s great about education.”

His own journey to a high school English classroom took him from a fellowship in Chicago to a year of teaching in Nigeria, then back to the United States where he lived and taught in Alabama, and then switched being a teacher for becoming a student himself by earning his master’s degree in upstate New York before settling back in Indiana with his family.

Originally, Jenkins chose secondary education because he had so many great high school teachers and wanted to be like those people and have that same impact at that stage in students' lives. But he also sees his own experiences through his students.

“They’re at such a turning point in their lives. A lot of them are like me, (saying) ‘I have no idea (what I want to do),’ and I tell them that’s ok.”

In his classroom, Jenkins emphasizes play and creativity - and tries to eliminate distractions and encourage openness and freedom when it comes to writing and reading. When asked about what he’d advise future teachers, his message: it’s ok to fail.

“A lot of times in that first year of teaching we’re so afraid of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. Embracing that freedom to fail is really important,” Jenkins said. “I feel like teachers, we’re harder on ourselves when things don't go according to plan. The reality is that those failures early on are going to make you a better teacher later. When that lesson plan inevitably crashes and burns, you’re going to push forward and be flexible.”

“What’s helped me embrace that idea is ultimately, it’s not about the content but it’s about how we make our students feel after they’ve left our classroom. They’re going to remember how we made them feel. We get to be that person that was that encouragement and shining light for a student. You are that person that makes them feel seen and heard,” he added.