By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Geneva Young can summarize her life to this point in periods of four years, and she would be the first to agree that starting off her fourth year as an assistant principal at Lady’s Island Middle School by being named the Beaufort County School District’s (BCSD) Assistant Principal of the Year for the 2025-2026 school year is a pretty great beginning to the year.
Young said that she was so convinced that she would not win the award that she didn’t even react when they called her name.
“I am still in disbelief,” Young said. “When my name got called my principal was like, ‘Miss Young, isn’t that you?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, it is!’”
Born and raised in Beaufort County on St. Helena Island, Young attended Lady’s Island Middle School in between her time at St. Helena Elementary School and Beaufort High School, where she graduated in 2004.
She attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia for three years before she returned home to help care for a family member who was experiencing health issues.
Young finished her undergraduate degree at University of South Carolina Beaufort and started with the BCSD as a long-term substitute teacher before getting hired on as a second-grade teacher at Broad River Elementary School in 2010.
She worked at Broad River Elementary School and spent time as a teacher for the Chinese immersion program there before transitioning to being a reading coach.
Now, Young is entering her fourth year as the sixth-grade assistant principal at Lady’s Island Middle School and loves what she does.
“I can honestly say I am having the time of my life,” Young said about her job. “I wake up in the morning and I’m just ready to come back in the school building with these babies. I call them babies, but they don’t like it when I call them babies, but they will forever and always be their parents’ babies, so they’re my babies.”
As an assistant principal, Young said that what feels like sets her apart is that she is always willing to go above and beyond for her job.
“Honestly, my mom, I think she has a spy on me because she’ll send me a text at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. at night and say, ‘Why are you still at the school building,’ and I say, ‘Mom, I have to do the work.’”
Young said she is more than happy to work hard in her job though, because at the end of the day it’s all for student achievement and the staff that she “serves” as well. She is not afraid to get her hands dirty and will always jump in to help a teacher in need because she is a helper.
Even though this year marks four years for Young in her current position, she said that she is truly happy staying where she is for a little bit.
“I just really see myself continuing in the leadership role,” Young said. “One day hoping to be a principal within Beaufort County School District, if they would have me, and then just bringing everything that I have learned along the way with me in that role.”
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
