Jessica Polk Sentell is a board member for the Clearwater School Foundation.
Rural Missouri and a public school education set the stage for Jessica Polk Sentell’s journey to Washington — first through a national fellowship, then work at the Pentagon — and back home to teach high school.
“I had a really awesome career (in Washington); got to do mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime kind of things that were very, very cool,” she says. Despite that success, coming home to Piedmont was always part of the plan.
“We wanted to raise our kids here,” she says. “We wanted them to have that same rural experience.”
After moving back in 2012, Sentell began teaching government at Piedmont’s Clearwater High School. The decision to return to her alma mater also continued a family legacy, as her mother and grandmother also taught at the Wayne County district.
“My family has been very connected to the district,” she says. “I care about public education and education in rural areas.”
Today, she works in the nonprofit sector but serves on the Clearwater School Foundation board, which has funded needs like new playground equipment, band instruments, visits from traveling performers and field trips to St. Louis. Sentell helps secure grants that expand educational needs and cultural opportunities in a community of about 1,900 people and a median household income of just over $40,000.
“I was very fortunate that I had a family that cared very much about making sure I knew that there was a much bigger world out there,” she says. “Not a lot of people from here get that opportunity, and so we have just sort of made it our mission to enhance the educational experience here.”
Who inspires you? Send your suggestions of individuals moving the needle in your community to Kaitlyn McConnell,
the CFO’s writer in residence, at kmcconnell@cfozarks.org.
