By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
With her no-nonsense, I-am-the-lady-in-charge personality, it is easy to see why Jennifer Edenfield was recently awarded Region 4 CTE Administrator of the Year. She’s a woman who has a mission and a vision to connect students with real-world options for their futures beyond high school.
Edenfield has been an educator for 23 years. She started out as an agriculture science teacher.
“It’s a highlight of my career when former students see me at the Houston Rodeo. They come up and say, ‘Hey, is that you, Miss J.’ I even get invites to my former students’ weddings and other memorable events,” Edenfield said.
For the past three years, she has been working at Ball High School (BHS) in Galveston.
As Director of Career and Technical Education, College Career and Military Readiness and Advanced Academics, she provides students with community resources that enhance their skills in the classroom and after graduation.
“Students must be able to see that their skills can produce something,” Edenfield said. “One of the greatest joys of my job is to be able to provide students with what they need to be marketable so that they feel good about the direction they are going.”
In her position, she has contributed to the growth of Ball High School’s Dual Credit program. The partnership between BHS and Galveston College allows high school students to receive both high school and college credit for certain courses. In 2022, BHS and Galveston College shared 299 students. At the start of the 2024-2205 school year, they shared 726 students.
Under Edenfield’s leadership, other career programs within the district, such as College, Carer and Military Readiness, also have increased enrollments.
She reported that she works to build relationships within the island and mainland communities so that the students at Ball High School will be participants in preparing for their futures.
“We are providing students with career options while they are in high school,” Edenfield said. “But sometimes our job is to help them find out what they don’t want to do.”
In her office, tucked deep in the heart of the building, she goes from one data chart to another as she seeks out ways to allocate resources for the teachers to use in helping students build their futures.
Though her office is isolated, Edenfield works with a team of teachers and other support staff to whom she gives all the credit for what she has been able to accomplish at Ball High School.
“I’m just a facilitator, and I have a great team of people working with me,” Edenfield said.
Her days are packed with meetings and more meetings, both virtual and in person. She takes a break when and if the opportunity presents itself. She is reported by her colleagues as working tirelessly with integrity, vision and heart.
Her work may be behind the scenes, but the results of it are experienced by the public because teachers and students receive the skills and resources they need to build students’ futures as productive adult citizens.
