Dr. Sharolyn Simmons is entering her 14th year in public education. Along with her professional responsibilities, she serves as a teacher advocate. She has a passion for the art of teaching!

Influenced by my sense of purpose and inspired by generations of educators, I teach my community’s fifth graders at Rosewood Elementary School in the same classroom where I was educated as a fifth grader. My deep pride and love is the sharing of my family’s four generations in this neighborhood school. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Education and a Master of Education in Divergent Learning from Columbia College located in Columbia, South Carolina. I am a National Board Certified Teacher in the area of Early/Adolescent Mathematics, with certificate endorsements in Middle Level Mathematics, Gifted and Talented, and Read to Succeed. While educating and nurturing students is my love and passion, I believe mentoring future and current educators has been my greatest contribution and accomplishment in the field of education. As a former Teacher Cadet and trained South Carolina new teacher mentor, I share my knowledge and passion for teaching with Teacher Cadets, teacher candidates, and induction level and current classroom teachers. I am the district’s facilitator for National Board Certification and lead awareness sessions for National Board Certification and Maintenance of Certification candidates. My service provides opportunity at the national level to develop assessments for the National Board certification process. My mentorship opportunities are showcased among my work throughout the school district. Driving her passion for educating others, I am a true example of a strong educational community ambassador.

I believe that we all have a purpose; I believe that we should be an advocate for students, for teachers, and for education. I teach kindergarten; I am certified to teach early-childhood to high school students in social studies and English; I have experience teaching K-4 and 6-8 for at-risk students, during summer school. I am the local president of our education association, which is an affiliate of The SCEA and NEA; for the 2022-2023 school year, I have been selected as the Teacher of the Year for my school.

I earned my associate’s degrees in both Mechanical Engineering Technologies and Engineering Graphics Technologies from York Technical College. Currently, I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Arkansas State University in Engineering Management Technologies and will then pursue a master’s in Educational Learning. I spent twenty years as a manufacturing and design engineer at various companies in North and South Carolina. I also spent many years as a Youth Director at church and coaching youth sports. There, I realized my passion for teaching, coaching, and mentoring young people to be their best in all aspects of life. During this time, I began searching for something more rewarding, so I began pursuing education and received an opportunity in 2013 to become a teacher at Clover High School. Now, I teach Engineering for grades 9-12 at Clover High School’s Applied Technology Center in York School District 2 and coach football. Some of my major accomplishments in education is when I was awarded Clover School Districts 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year and was named a finalist for the South Carolina State Teacher of the Year in 2024.