Jillienne Lingis is taking her love of learning and empowering future generations as a teacher and role model who nurtures growth in her students. A 2025 graduate of Slippery Rock University, Lingis successfully transitioned from student to professional earlier this year when she was hired as a fourth-grade teacher in the Fannett-Metal School District in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. But that doesn’t mean her learning has stopped.
“Teachers have had such a positive impact on me because they made me love learning,” said Lingis, who grew up in New Stanton and attended Hempfield High School. “I loved going to school all through K to 12, and then I also loved college so much, and I knew becoming a teacher, I would get to learn in that process as well. I learn not just from administrators and other teachers, but also from my students. I wanted to get into a career where I could learn but also set a strong foundation for others to grow and have a lifelong love of learning like I have.”
Lingis chose SRU because of its proximity to home but also from others who have raved about its accomplished education programs.
“When I stepped onto campus, it just felt like home,” Lingis said. “Everyone was so welcoming and positive, and you knew that they wanted to support you. I knew that I was getting into a good program. I always heard about how amazing Slippery Rock’s education program is, and then once you go through it, you realize why everyone’s talking about it. I know things that I never thought I would learn.”
Lingis credits teaching techniques, behavior management and other best practices that she learned from her classroom and student-teaching experience. But she also benefited from mentorship and the feedback from having six observations from her professors during her field experience.
“That really helped me, because it made me feel more comfortable getting feedback,” Lingis said. “All the professors were just so amazing, and they truly wanted you to do well. Even now, I still have communication with some of them, and they still want me to be doing well [now that I’m working in the field], which I think is even better.”
Lingis is now responsible for 13 children in her classroom at Fannett-Metal, a relatively small group, and she is already applying lessons she learned at SRU. This includes hands-on experiments such as an activity where students test objects to see which ones will either sink or float, a project that she learned from a class she had with Rob Snyder, professor of curriculum, instruction and educational leadership.
Buoyed by experience at SRU, Lingis is an example of a first-year teacher who is on the rise in her profession.
More information about the elementary education program at SRU is available on the program’s webpage.
