At-risk students typically gravitate to Deborah Pounders.
The newly retired Columbus Municipal School District science teacher isn’t quite sure why.
“I’ve never really pinpointed what it is that I have to offer, but they tend to be very comfortable with me,” Pounders said. “I have unofficially mentored at-risk students my whole career.”
During the 2019-20 school year, “unofficially” became “officially” for Pounders. She created the “Check and Connect” program at Columbus High School, pairing at-risk students with teacher mentors. Pounders was one of mentors, participating in a program she designed not only to keep students on track but take pride in their accomplishments as well.
“We always had a chance to brag on them, and the students didn’t feel like we were just telling them everything that they needed to fix,” Pounders said.
The program was one of Pounders’ many achievements in a 25-year career featuring plenty of mentorship — and not just for students.
With a master’s degree in teacher leadership from Mississippi State she attained in 2020, Pounders has made it her mission to help early-career teachers adjust to a challenging field. She terms it a “win-win” situation, saying she can benefit from their energy and knowledge of new technology while helping them avoid burnout — a persistent problem among those in their first five years teaching.
“I like to see that there are people out there who are still passionate about entering the education field because we need it desperately right now,” Pounders said.
Her retirement became official at the end of the 2021-22 school year, but Pounders isn’t done helping. She will transition into part-time consulting of teachers in need of support as well as tutoring students preparing for state testing in biology.
“I don’t completely want to be away from students because that’s what I love the most about teaching: my kids,” Pounders said.
Traveling the world
Pounders has shown that while holding various roles in CMSD. She started her career as a long-term substitute before taking a full-time middle school teaching job.
From there, she worked eight years at CMSD’s Alternative School. Pounders taught seventh- and eighth-grade science, a mixed science class — biological science; physical science; human anatomy; and physiology — and even a world history class.
She said she learned quickly that being thorough and flexible was important, but caring about students was paramount.
“That was the No. 1 thing: relationships with students,” Pounders said. “What’s personally important to them? What are their goals? What do they want to do? You can take students anywhere once you know what they’re working toward and they know that you really care and support them.”
In a couple cases, “take students anywhere” took on a literal meaning. As part of a partnership with the National Science Foundation, Pounders sent students to the University of Maine to train them on how to assess water quality. Upon returning to Columbus, they tested water quality at Magby and Luxapalila creeks.
Pounders also took students to Montana, and she once got to travel to the Australian island state of Tasmania for field research in environmental science as part of the MSU GK12 INSPIRE program at Mississippi State University.
She said Australia had been “on her bucket list” to visit, but it would have been expensive on a teacher’s salary had the NSF not covered the cost.
“That was an amazing opportunity,” Pounders said. “I always tell students, ‘Education can take you places you didn’t think you could go.’”
Going out strong
After two-plus decades with CMSD, the 2020-21 school year took Pounders to another unfamiliar place: Starkville.
Her master’s degree newly finished, she left the district for a position at Partnership Middle School, hoping to work with the new teachers and teacher interns Mississippi State sent to the school.
But Pounders’ best-laid plans went awry. The COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person instruction, and the student teachers from MSU weren’t even allowed into classrooms.
Pounders said leaving for Starkville made her realize it was time to return to Columbus. CMSD “fortunately” had a biology position open, and she jumped at the chance.
A lifelong Columbus resident who attended Caldwell High School and got her bachelor’s degree from Mississippi University for Women, Pounders said she was ready to come home.
“This is the place that built me, and I feel like I want to continue to help build the community,” she said. “I think the best way that we can do that is with a strong education system. If students can get an education, they can do anything that they choose.”
An education system getting stronger — the Mississippi Legislature passed a teacher pay raise in March — is part of the reason Pounders chose to retire after the past school year. Her husband Harold is retiring this year, too, and she wanted to spend time with her mother, four children and three grandchildren.
“I wanted to retire in a good season where I was positive about education and I felt I was leaving the students in a good, positive place,” Pounders said. “I never wanted to be one of those teachers who hung around too long and everybody’s wondering, ‘Why hasn’t she retired yet?’
“I wanted to go out on a good note,” she added.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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