It wasn’t until she saw herself alongside other young professionals honored as one of Columbia Business Monthly magazine’s “Best and Brightest 35 and Under” in September that Whitney (Jones) Prowell ’08 realized she wouldn’t have expected someone in her field to be highlighted in such a feature.

“I was shocked and excited I guess at the same time, because a lot of times you don’t see people in education – especially not those that are practitioners in the schools and the classrooms – being selected for positions in business magazines,” Prowell said. “It was exciting. It was motivating.”

Prowell is an assistant principal at Joseph Keels Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina, and just because she was surprised someone in her position was recognized doesn’t mean Prowell and others like her don’t deserve it. The recognition is overdue, in fact.

“Teaching and education aren’t seen as something that people will be proud of you to do. You hear ‘You should be a doctor, a lawyer, a businesswoman,’ or things like that … But I will say now I feel like that’s changing,” Prowell said. “People understand the importance of educators and how intelligent you have to be to be an educator. You have to be a people person. You have to have content knowledge. You have to understand pedagogy to work with students to increase their confidence and achievement.”

In its fifth year, the annual Best and Brightest 35 and Under issue celebrates the women and men “who are rising