OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Marion County Public Schools (MCPS) is celebrating Zanita Hendry, an 11-year-veteran and art teacher at Hillcrest School in Ocala. Her students know her as Ms. Z, and she is a 2023 award winner for the Florida Art Education Association (FAEA).
Ms. Z accepted the organization’s “Adaptive Arts Educator Award” at FAEA’s annual conference in Ponte Vedra Beach earlier this month.
This award is given to one FAEA member who has “served students with distinction,” according to FAEA. Ms. Z also received the honor because she “believes, supports, and helps to define the development and implementation of inclusive visual arts practices in the field” according to FAEA.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Central Florida and has taught at Hillcrest since 2016, working with the school’s 170 students to encourage and develop their individual art skills and talents.
Prior to teaching art, Ms. Z taught a self-contained varying exceptionality (VE) classroom in Hillcrest’s Developmental Unit for two years. She was also an exceptional student education (ESE) paraprofessional at both Hillcrest and at The Webster School in Saint Augustine totaling six years.
The art program at Hillcrest is fairly new, but Ms. Z says she’s had some of the proudest moments of her life working with her students.
“As an ESE teacher, there are times when my job feels impossible, but it is my students’ enthusiasm and determination that continues to make the impossible, well… possible,” Hendry said. “When someone says that one person can’t make a difference, they clearly have not been on our campus. The students at Hillcrest have made a profound difference in my life and my only wish, as an educator, is to return the favor.”