Asbury Educator of the Month: Marci Smith
You’ve heard about being joined at the hip? How about joined at the kidney? That’s the case for Curriculum Resource Administrator Marci Smith and custodian Ivan Graves, co-workers at, and fellow graduates of, West Jessamine High.
Friends for more than 15 years, the pair increased their kinship a year ago when Smith donated a kidney to Graves, who had been undergoing dialysis for five years.
His ailing kidney interfered with his job at Jessamine Career and Technology Center, so Graves returned to his old job at West Jessamine and mentioned the reason for the move to Smith.
“You need a kidney? I’ll give you one of my mine;’ she told Graves cheerfully. The two – a white woman and an African American man – had a six percent chance of being a match, but God intervened, they said, and miraculously they were a fit.
The last day of August marked the one year anniversary of the operation, and it has been a noteworthy year for both. After a brief battle with rejection, Graves is back to good health, and Smith realized a goal by becoming a living donor.
“My family and close friends knew that I always wanted to be a donor;’ she said. “God placed it on my heart and I knew it was going to happen:’
Giving to others is nothing new for Smith, who has served Jessamine County high schoolers for 22 years. She taught math for 17 years, the first six at East Jessamine, and in 2013, she was the school and county Teacher of the Year. Last year, after six weeks of convalescence from surgery, Smith returned to school and was named the interim principal, a position she fell in love with.
“I was able to interact with kids a lot more and I absolutely loved that:’ she said. From the start, she knew she would be interim principal only and returned to her job in Curriculum Resources this year.
Smith is nothing if not a team player. She starred in three sports in high school and played on the state championship softball team. She also played two sports in college, coached three sports during her first six years as a teacher and is an avid University of Kentucky basketball and Atlanta Braves fan.
Smith is energetic, upbeat, passionate about her job… and she’s an organ donor. That’s a winning combination.