Jena Horm

Master Teacher, Accelerate Rowan Lab School, E.D. Koontz Elementary School, Salisbury, NC

Native of Rowan County

Industry: Education

Jena Horm grew up at Pebble Point on High Rock Lake and still calls the lake her favorite outdoor space in Rowan County. “Any time there’s warm weather, that’s where you’ll find me,” she says of the lake. Her favorite restaurant is on the lake, Tamarac Marina & Restaurant, on Bringle Ferry Road. “The view is spectacular,” she says. “You can’t beat the view while eating outside on the patio.”

She recommends that newcomers to the county take a trip to the lake first and then check out the view of Salisbury from the top of nearby Dunn’s Mountain Park on Stokes Ferry Road. 

A native of Rowan, Jena likes the diversity she sees in the county, calling the county “a fully diversified experience. Education, culture, economic status, race, and religion all add their values to the county,” she says. She calls the county fortunate with several towns that offer “the small-town atmosphere while still providing a wide variety of services you would expect in larger cities.”

Jena is proud that her husband, Hann, originally from Cambodia, recently received U.S. citizenship. They are the parents of two children, Abby, a graduate of East Rowan High School, and Bryson, a freshman at East.

She is active in the Girls on the Run program in the Rowan Salisbury Schools with half a dozen schools in the county now sponsoring the program designed to empower girls. “It’s open to girls in grades three to five,” she says. “They get to have conversations on how they handle things at school or home. They learn how to re-set and make the most of what they are going through.”

In the community, she is active in the Rowan Rescue Squad Auxiliary, which raises funds for equipment and provides assistance during Response Team calls.

She is. a graduate of North Rowan High School, Rowan Cabarrus Community College, and the University of Phoenix. She is in her 15^th year as a teacher at Koontz.

Her favorite event in Rowan County is the Cheerwine Festival. “Who doesn’t love Cheerwine,” she says. “It’s nice to see the festival grow and to be able to shop local vendors unique to Salisbury, especially those vendors who have taken the Cheerwine product and turned it into their own product.” She is especially fond of the Cackalacky™ Cheerwine barbecue sauce and Mean Mug’s Cheerwine latte.

Those vendors speak to the county’s Be an Original™ slogan. To Jena, being an original here means individuals developing their various talents and striving to bring out their full potential.