Jennie Randolph’s life has been filled with the kind of people who poured back into the community the same kind of care and generosity of spirit the teacher was honored for Thursday as Difference Maker of the Year.
She considers it a life brought full circle as she now has the opportunity to do the same for the teens she mentors, the boards she serves on and the projects for which she volunteers.
“I think it’s really important to pour back into the community and show the kids what it’s like to serve and why it’s important to serve because that’s where you get to see that big picture of that love and that compassion and that care that we have here,” Randolph shared in an interview before the announcement was made.
She is an English teacher at Poplar Bluff High School, serving as co-sponsor for the approximately 100 members of Student Council. The group performs more than 50 projects each school year, many aimed at volunteerism and giving back to the community.
Her first co-sponsor for StuCo was veteran teacher Hope Conover. It was one of the times that made Randolph consider her life brought full circle. When Randolph was a PBHS student, Conover was her StuCo advisor.
Conover, along with teacher Chuck Lee, was someone who was there during a difficult time for the teen, and also helped show Randolph the type of adult she wanted to be.
Randolph’s sister was struggling with health problems. Randolph provided a lot of care for her two younger brothers while her parents traveled back and forth to St. Louis with their other daughter for medical appointments.
“They were so good about checking on me ... looking to see where they could support me without always having to say something,” Randolph said. “And I think that’s one thing that I look to do for students is, ‘You’re having a rough day. If you don’t want to talk about that’s fine. But what can I do to be there and support you in those times?’”
Randolph has also seen that generosity of spirit in her own family. Her parents are Bob and Michelle Caswell. Her father is a retired Poplar Bluff firefighter, and her mother is a teacher at the Poplar Bluff Early Childhood Center. Randolph’s grandparents started Pilgrim’s Rest Church at Fairdealing and Randolph grew up in Living Word Baptist Church.
It was helping lead children’s and youth church, as well as her experiences with A+ tutoring, that put her on the path toward being an educator.
As a tutor, she helped a student at the district’s alternative school catch up on credits for his grade level.
“It was the kind of moment where I was like, ‘Wow, I really do like this. I could do something to where I could change things for a kid,’” Randolph said.
God’s help secured her future as an educator, said Randolph, who originally applied to College of the Ozarks as a public relations major but instead got put in her second major choice, education.
“God had control,” she said. “I truly feel like this is what God has called me to with my life.”
Randolph and her husband Zac returned to Poplar Bluff after graduation and now both teach for the district from which they graduated. Their son, Marvin, is starting early childhood this year at “Mimi’s” school. The couple also serves as foster parents.
Randolph has returned home to take up many volunteer efforts in her community, including serving on two boards for the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library, as the volunteer coordinator for the Southeast Missouri Special Olympics and on the board of Youth for Christ.
She helped kick off Unified Champions, a program that provides an opportunity for youth with special needs to be active in sports.
In her first year of teaching, Randolph started an American Sign Language club at PBHS and now the district has an ASL class. Randolph wrote grants that would allow the club to travel to Springfield for more enrichment, which helped lead to the class.
Randolph has helped coordinate 18 blood drives, helped teach grades fifth through eighth during a mission trip to Belize and has served as an assistant to the drama club.
She also works with district efforts to teach to other educators and to update district policies and curriculum.
“Biblically, we are called to serve as we model our lives after Christ as he gave us the biggest example of serving,” Randolph said, when asked why it was so important to serve others, and to share that with her students. “Furthermore, serving others is an opportunity to practice humility. We can not have a better community unless we are willing to invest in those around us.”
Randolph helped add a School Store as a practical art credit for the district. She essentially teaches two classes each period, because she oversees the store class at the same time as her regular schedule.
Another project Randolph helped with involved students handing out more than 4,000 kindness cards to other students in the 2022-2023 school year, “to ensure every student heard a kind word multiple times throughout the year.”
“I’ll hear from people, just not in our community, but just out in the world.. ‘Oh, well, teenagers are so horrible.’” Randolph said. “They don’t see how great our teenagers are. Because sometimes they can be hard-headed, which yes, they are, but so are we.
“They are fiercely compassionate. They are always ready to go to bat for you. So when they feel that love and respect, they’re definitely willing to give back.”
Randolph has also heard the complaint that teens are self-centered.
“Kids are never going to not be self-centered, because we as adults are not self-centered unless we’re looking at others,” she said. “And we aren’t going to become more empathetic, more kind people unless we change that perspective. And so looking at serving others and how our actions one way or another affect people.
“That’s how our community becomes the great place we currently have. It’s because people have stepped out of their comfort zone and quit focusing on themselves to look at others.”
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