2020 Young Professional of the Year Sarah E. Holloway

2020 ALBNAY UNDER 40

Young

professional of the Year

sarah holloway

Sarah Holloway was a teacher before she even realized it, working with her younger siblings and helping her mother as a young girl growing up in Albany. Despite this, she originally wanted to be an OB/ GYN when she started college, never dreaming that she would one day be awarded the 2020 Albany Area Chamber's 2020 Albany Under 40 Young Professional of the Year for her work as an educator.

When she did find her way to education, she set her sights high, telling her college advisor she wanted to be a school principal.

“My advisor told me if you want to be a principal then you have to teach,” she said with a laugh.

She settled on middle Grades english and social studies, and now there’s no doubt that she has found her true calling. Although she started her career teaching middle school English in Americus, she eventually found her way to Dougherty Comprehensive High School where she now teaches U.S. history to 11th graders in the morning and works as a social studies instructional coach in the afternoon.

“I started teaching middle school, and I didn’t think I was going to end up in high school,” said Holloway. “I thought, "Those kids are my size, my height, and I look like I’m their age.' ”

When her principal at Albany Middle School left to be the principal at Dougherty High, she took a chance and followed him. “(I liked it) much more than I thought I would,” Holloway said. “They’re getting ready to go out and experience life and everything that it has to offer, the good and the bad, so it has more of an impact than (I saw) in middle school.”

And throughout her journey as a teacher, she was continuing as a student for much of the time. After graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in middle grades English and social studies from Albany State University and while continuing to work as a teacher, Holloway went on to get a Master’s in middle grades education and a specialist’s degree from ASU.

Even while pregnant and with a newborn, Holloway continued her studies. Her now five-year-old son, Cody, was born on January 11 and her last semester of classes for her specialist’s degree started the very next day. Still in the hospital with her son, Holloway worked on online discussion questions for her new classes.

“My son was four months old at my graduation, and he had on a shirt that said ‘My mom is graduating today, so she can be my principal someday.’ That was very exciting and rewarding, doing it for him.”

Not long after finishing her specialist’s degree, the position for the social studies instructional coach became available.

“I like being an instructional coach,” said Holloway. “I’m able to collaborate with the teachers and see their strengths, and I take things from them. We just collaborate, building on each other’s strengths and any weaknesses we have, trying to see how we can get better for the children. … I still get the joy of still seeing my babies and teaching these children, but I also play that administrator role to a certain extent.”

Although Holloway still has her sights set high, her goals have shifted over the years.

“I call my classroom Holloway’s Academy, and we have t-shirts and blazers,” Holloway said. “I do this thing called Lunch and Learn

where their parents can come … and hear them sing. (They can) see a day in the life of their child’s experience in my classroom.”

Through Holloway’s Academy and the yearly Lunch and Learns, which she has done since working at Albany Middle School, Holloway has set her sights on the possibility of opening her own school one day.

And so I have to look in the mirror at myself and say, ‘Am I okay with where I am or do I want to reach and teach more children and have my stamp on more kids?’ I’m kind of leaning in that direction now.

“I would be able to impact children of all ages (with my own school),” said Holloway. “I want to start at three years old and end at 8th grade. I want that beginning stage to really impart that love for learning and that love and motivation and to watch that grow.”

«I tell my children that you don't settle,»” said Holloway. «Don't be okay with barely making the mark. And it’s no wonder that all this hard work that led to Holloway to being where she is today and the motivation and determination that drives her to want to open her own school one day, also led to her being nominated and named the 2020 Albany Under 40 Young Professional of the Year. Having won this award for the pandemic year of 2020, Holloway said she doesn’t take it lightly that an educator was the one chosen. “With the pandemic, there were a lot of changes,” said Holloway. “It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the classroom, two years, 20 years, it didn’t matter. We all started over as first-year teachers teaching virtually online. It was a lot, especially at the beginning because it made it harder to build those relationships. … We had to find creative ways to reach our kids, creative ways to still hook them, let them know we still care about them, and let them know that content is still important.

“I was so shocked (the night I received the award), but I really wanted to convey to everybody that this is not just for me. This award is for every educator because we made it. It was a lot going through our own personal family issues and losing loved ones and friends and still trying to come to the classroom and be a bright light in someone else’s life. ... I’m just grateful that I was recognized, for all educators to be recognized.”