TEACHER AMANDA MOFFETT said she was incredibly humbled and honored to win the JAG Award. “While it’s amazing to be recognized,” she wrote in a letter given to the Sun, “the real spotlight belongs on our WCHS JAG program and our amazing students. They are the heart of everything I do … the ones that deserve the applause.” Moffett lives in Versailles with her husband John. They have four children, Will, Jack, Savannah and Sawyer, who is a junior at WCHS. (Photo by Bob Vlach)
By Bob Vlach
Woodford Sun Staff
Amanda Moffett, the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) teacher at Woodford County High School, says winning JAG’s High Performer Award is humbling, but also puts a spotlight on “our amazing students” at WCHS, who “are the heart of everything I do.”
JAG, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth with skills and support for success in education, employment and life, recognized Moffett for excellence in connecting her students to meaningful pathways through employer and community partnerships.
Moffett “is seriously committed to ensuring that Woodford County High School students have a world of opportunities to be able to explore what their future occupation or their future career could really look like,” schools Superintendent Lori Jones told the Sun.
“And she is very serious about empowering students to be leaders.”
Of the 23 graduating seniors in Moffett’s JAG classes a year ago, eight entered the workforce full-time and 15 others chose to go to college or trade school, she told the Sun. One-year follow-ups with her students allow her to see how they’re doing and if they need any additional assistance. Keeping in touch allows her to “see their growth and maturity,” she said.
Moffett, a 1994 graduate of WCHS who grew up here, said JAG students benefit from her personal connections in the community. “And the community support is only growing,” she said.
Being the JAG teacher at WCHS, she said, “is where I’m supposed to be right now.” Because no two days are alike, she added, “It’s a good fit for me.”
Moffett has also been a teacher at Huntertown and Southside elementary schools before starting her career at WCHS as an English Language (EL) teacher in 2022, then pivoting to her current position as WCHS JAG teacher/specialist in the fall of 2024, she said.
Unlike most teachers at WCHS, Moffett can have ninth-, 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students in her JAG class, which is an elective. She begins the school year doing a lot of team-building and getting to know her students.
She said some of the teens know exactly what career or job they want, but “most of them have no idea.”
Later in the school year, after students elect a president and other JAG officers, Moffett invites guest speakers into their classroom and takes students on field trips to learn about a variety of jobs and career opportunities. The goal is for them to figure out: This is what I want to do.
Because each year features different guest speakers and field trips, students can take JAG for more than one year, Moffett said. She loves having students back because they can become leaders in her JAG classes, which gives them self-confidence.
“I want them to feel, in my class, that they are seen, that they are heard, that they have a voice,” she said. So when several students expressed an interest in engineering last year, she invited a civil engineer to come talk to the class, she said.
Because she only has 45 to 65 students in five JAG classes, Moffett builds strong relationships with her students and their families. “I want to see the whole child,” she said.
She also appreciates having more time to support students when they need extra help in other classes or if they need support overcoming barriers in their everyday lives.
“I want them to see that in spite of their barriers, they can rise above,” said Moffett. So she brings in guest speakers to share what they have overcome and pushed-through to find success in life because she wants her students to “succeed professionally and relationally in their lives.”
“She has high expectations,” said Jones, “and she just helps students believe in what they can be and what they need to be now to be what they want to be in the future.”
Moffett, whose JAG teaching position is partially funded by a grant, said she reports directly to JAG Kentucky every day to ensure she and her JAG Force team (Elyse Lunsford, Tammi Jones and Torie Hundley) are providing students with tools to be successful. Her students learn soft skills to prepare them for job interviews with an end goal of having students ready for trade school, college or a full-time job when they leave WCHS.
“There are so many people that apply for jobs today, you’ve got to make yourself stand out,” said Moffett, “and so much of it is relationships.”