What started out as a job that made it easier for Tonya Kemp to spend time with her three children turned into a passion and a career.

Kemp has been a teacher’s assistant at Fairlane Elementary School for 10 years. This year is her first year as a teacher there.

Now 40, Kemp was 33 at the time she decided to go back to school to get her bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

“I had been out of high school for about 15 years when I decided to start college classes,” she said.

“I actually started subbing two years before I got my full-time job. Of course, I subbed at different schools, mostly Westside, because that’s where we live out on Rocky Mound Road.

“There was another substitute that had heard that there was going to be a teacher’s aid position open, and she said, ‘You need to call the principal,’ and I was really nervous because I didn’t really know the principal, and I thought, ‘I don’t have a chance.’ But I went ahead and called Ms. Harrison, and she said, ‘It is so funny that you called because I just got off the phone with David Flynn, and he recommended you to me.’ So, I was pretty much just hired on the spot because of his recommendation.”

“A lot of times when the teachers have a meeting, like to meet about a child, or speech, or IEP or anything like that, they will pull an aid to sit in the class while they go for the meeting, and I would go into the classrooms and teach while they were gone. And I really liked it when I got in there, and I loved the kids. We had so much fun together, and I thought, ‘You know, I could do this. I could do this job.’

After she took college into consideration, she talked to her husband about it.

“We prayed about it,” she said. “That’s very important to us. We prayed because we had no money, and I just prayed that, if it was meant to be, God would make a way, and he did.”

After four years of part-time classes, Kemp earned her Associate of Science degree from Vol State.

“Once I got to that point, that’s when you applied for the education program through TSU, and things were really getting tight. My husband’s job was really slow, and they weren’t working very much. What little money we had was even smaller than before. I told my husband, ‘I’m just going to quit. The money’s not there.’”

Kemp’s husband Cary assured her that they would find a way, and an opportunity was presented.

“I ended up getting a loan that I wasn’t expecting to get and a Pell Grant, so there was my door that was opened. And I was accepted into the teaching program with no problem.”

She started taking classes at Vol State through TSU full-time in 2007. She took a leave and continued to work at Fairlane two to two and a half days a week.

In 2009, she received her bachelor’s in elementary education, and is now certified to teach K-6.

Kemp says that it was difficult going back to school with young children, but she had a lot of help.

“My husband was wonderful during this. He cooked, he helped out with the kids, and I couldn’t have done it without him.”

Her oldest son Cory is now 18 and preparing to start his first year of college, her youngest son Tyler is 15, and her daughter Caitlyn is 13.

So far, she is enjoying her new job as a teacher, and says that her favorite aspect of the job is interacting with the kids.

“For me, it’s so much more exciting because I’m actually getting to be with them and see their abilities already,” she said. You can tell in the past few days, watching them color a sheet of paper, which ones are laid back, which ones are really eager to get it done, which ones want to take their time and make it perfect.”