Jelsi Bolt is a new math teacher at McIntosh High School, moving from her hometown in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois to join the faculty. She hopes to create meaningful and trustful bonds with each of her students.

“I really enjoy building relationships with students and being that person that they can come to with questions or concerns, math or not math related. I think that just trying to be a mentor to students is something that I always want to achieve in my life. It’s different because every year I get a new crop of students and so it’s hard to say ‘Oh in 30 years I want, you know, this one student to achieve whatever’ because every year is different and so I just want to achieve having strong relationships within my classroom. And [be] someone that students can look to if they need guidance,” Bolt said.

Bolt has loved math since she was a teen in high school. She got her degree in math education at Illinois State University.

“I love math, math is fun. From an early age I knew that I liked math, in high school I knew I wanted to be a math teacher. I did internships teaching younger grade levels as I was a senior. I got my degree from Illinois State University in math education so I’ve been wanting to do it since I was [in high school],” Bolt said

She believes the students and staff members of MHS are outstanding and caring people.

“I like all the students, I think everyone is really sweet,  they’re kind, they’re caring, they’re hardworking and the staff is just the same. Everyone’s very accepting and I feel very welcomed even though I’ve only been here a few weeks,” Bolt said.

Although she loves Georgia and its red clay, she’s going to miss her hometown back in Illinois.

“It’s hard kind of starting over and trying to build a community down here and so I just miss the people that I grew up with,” Bolt said.