Former Jenks Teacher Graduates Alongside A Former Student

A former Jenks teacher will graduate from OU-Tulsa alongside one of her former third-grade students on Tuesday.

Maddie Pilling says her mom noticed on Facebook her former third-grade teacher was going to be in class with her at OU Tulsa. Now both say their student-teacher relationship has grown into a friendship.

“She was my favorite teacher so it worked out really well,” said former Jenks student, Maddie Pilling.

Maddie Pilling and her former teacher Terra Schultheis are both preparing to graduate from the 14 month-long accelerated nursing program at OU Tulsa. But instead of Terra teaching Maddie, they were both sitting in desks this time around.

“I remember Maddie as this little 8-year-old but being able to actually have a friendship with her has been a neat dynamic,” said Schultheis.

When Terra was teaching third grade, she made scrapbooks for each of her students to reflect on the year but was surprised to see Maddie still kept it 16 years later.

“I went crawling through the attic to the very back corner to my school stuff so I could look at it and say aw look at us,” said Pilling.

“It’s fun for me to look back because I remember so many of her and her classmates so it was fun to look back on that period of life again,” said Schultheis.

Maddie and Terra say it was comforting to have a familiar face alongside them throughout the program, even if there was a slight age gap.

“It was nice because I knew I had someone I could go to and talk to,” said Pilling. “It was also nice already knowing someone going into the program.”

Even changing student-teacher roles along the way.

“She taught me a lot about technology that I wasn’t as familiar with being a little older,” said Schultheis. “I’m one of the older people in my class but I just think if you persevere you can do whatever you like," said Schultheis.  

You can watch a live stream the OU Tulsa Graduation Tuesday night at 7.