Jennifer Jones is dedicated to her students at Horizon Elementary School. She was named Staff Member of the Year. CONTRIBUTED

MADISON – Jennifer Jones has been recognized by her peers as the 2016 Staff Member of the Year at Horizon Elementary School.

“Some responsibilities I have to handle as Horizon instructional aide are helping assist the physical education teacher with day-to-day duties, as well as helping run the Horizon Track Club after school,” Jones said.

Recently, Jones completed a project just before leaving for summer break. “I was helping raise money for our physical education department by selling Field Day T-shirts to our students, faculty and staff members. This event was so successful that we were able to leave a surplus for the upcoming school year,” Jones said.

For Jones, the most rewarding part of her job “is getting to see my students execute skills, as well as games with confidence,” she said. “A major challenge that I have in working in the gymnasium would be remembering every student name.”

“An educator that I will always remember, once told me, “Treat every nugget as if it’s the ‘golden nugget,’ meaning cherish every piece of information that comes across you,” Jones said.

“I will always remember this educator, because they challenge me to be better … they never saw me in the position of where I was but where I was going,” Jones said.

Jones earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education and kinesiology from Alabama A&M University.

In addition to Horizon, Jones has worked at Academy of Science and Foreign Language in Huntsville.