The satisfaction of watching his students walk across the stage for graduation in June is the driving force behind Terry Williams’s passion for teaching and sculpting the young minds of Ashe County.

Williams has recently been chosen as this year’s recipient for the North Carolina Social Studies Teacher of the Year award. Each year, the North Carolina Council for Social Studies reviews peer recommendations in an attempt to choose the educator who has left the most profound impact on the lives of his or her students.

“I was just totally shocked when I found out,” said Williams who discovered that he had been selected for the award through a letter from the president of the governing council.

“It truly was a humbling experience for me,” he said.

Williams would later travel to Greensboro to accept the award on Feb. 13 and credits his success as an educator to the staff and administration he works with at Ashe County High School along with the support he has received from the school board and Superintendent Donnie Johnson.

“I can truthfully say that Ashe County High School is the best high school in North Carolina, and I just hope that the entire county understands what type of wonderful high school that they have right here,” Williams said.

Williams began cultivating his passion for history during his high school years. During this time, Williams said that he would jump at the opportunity to read or view anything that included historical events. It was not until his time in junior college at Lees-McRae did Williams decide that he would pursue his interest in history, thanks in part to some helpful encouragement from a professor.

“I really didn’t enjoy the math and science curriculum in college like I did history,” Williams said. “That’s about the time when a professor of mine said, ‘Hey, if you really enjoy this stuff, maybe you should pursue it.’”

Williams said that his only concern at the time was the availability of employment for an aspiring history major. For history majors, Williams explained, one of the only career paths is one that involves education. After setting his course in education for history, Williams began to tutor area children afterschool, an activity he thoroughly enjoyed.

Following a transfer to Appalachian State University, Williams majored in the school’s secondary education program and received a teaching certification for the academically gifted, becoming the first teacher in Ashe County to receive such a designation.

Williams would then return to Ashe County to begin his career in education at West Jefferson, teaching fourth through eighth grades in history. When the school’s middle grades were relocated to Beaver Creek High School, Williams followed.

“I guess it was sort of ironic,” Williams said with a chuckle. “I graduated high school from Ashe Central, and here I was, teaching our cross county rivals at Beaver Creek.”

During his lengthy tenure at Beaver Creek, Williams exclusively taught those classified as academically or intellectually gifted. His diligence and perseverance in educating local youth was not overlooked as he was chosen as the history department’s chair. When the new high school opened its doors in 1999, Williams received the nod form then Principal Bradley McNeil as the school’s first and only history chair.

“After that, I guess you could say that the rest is history, so to speak,” Williams said.

To this day, Williams says that he enjoys teaching as much as he does at 31 years as he did five years into the profession. Although Williams has already completed the necessary number of school years, 31, to retire, he feels that we will continue to teach as long as he is making a difference.

“As long as I continue to feel positive about the school and students, I am going to keep coming back every school year,” said Williams. “I enjoy what I do and I think that you have to have a love for education and teaching, and you really have to enjoy opening the minds of students to learning.”

Williams went on to explain that the most overwhelming feeling of satisfaction he has received as an educator is watching those who may have struggled during school maintain their resilience and graduate.

“To watch a student graduate, who wasn’t an honor student but struggled and still walked across the stage, that is when I know I have made a difference and that’s why I am here,” Williams said. “The day that I stop making a difference, I’m leaving.”