Teacher had to find her true calling

Millicent Bowman comes from a family of teachers.

Her mother and one of her sisters are retired teachers. Her husband and niece are teachers. Another sister is an administrator for Head Start.

Mrs. Bowman has been teaching for 21 years, 13 of them as an engineering drawing and design teacher at A.R. Johnson Health, Science and Engineering Magnet High School.

Her path to teaching wasn't a direct one, though.

"I did not want to teach at first," she said. "Just about everyone in my family was a teacher, and because of that I said I was not going to teach. I went to college and purposely avoided teacher-education classes."

Instead, she decided to study drafting through a joint program between Augusta College and Augusta Technical Institute. After graduation, she worked as a drafter. A career in education wouldn't go away, though: "My professor at Augusta Tech used to call and tell me, 'You're good. You ought to teach.' "

In summer 1988, she took teacher-education classes at the University of Georgia and began teaching that year.

"I fell in love with it," she said. "I discovered that this was my true calling. I was meant to be in a classroom."

Her goal is to get her students excited about engineering.

"I love the opportunity to share my passion about engineering. I tell them that engineering makes life better, safer and more fun. I show them that everything around us is based on engineering."

She still takes classes to stay current in the industry, she said.

"This industry is changing so rapidly, you don't have a choice but to keep up or become obsolete," she said. "That's why I take the classes. I don't want my students to become obsolete. I want them to be on the cutting edge."

Reach Nikasha Dicks at (706) 823-3336 or nikasha.dicks@augustachronicle.com.