With generations of educators in the family, it is no surprise that Corey Collins Heroux turned to teaching as a career. Her mother, Teresita Valdivia Collins, taught math at many different levels in Indian River County schools while Heroux was young. But the decades of family involvement in teaching on the Treasure Coast date back to the late 1960s. Her maternal grandmother, Teri Valdivia, had come with her young family from Cuba fleeing Castro’s communist control. She spent several years teaching Spanish at then-Dan McCarty High School and later the newly-built Fort Pierce Central High School.

Talk to Nereida Steele and you can’t help but get impacted by her love for teaching. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Teaching is a special calling, she shares, a Godly mission for her life.

What does St. Edward’s School in Vero Beach have in common with the National Geographic Society? One very talented teacher. Dr. Kerryane Monahan, chair of the science department at St. Edward’s, has been awarded a fellowship with the National Geographic Society in the field of citizen science.