ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – We all have that one teacher we still remember years after graduating — the one who encouraged and supported us when we needed it most. For Jermaine Coles, a former Northside Middle School student, that teacher was Dr. Marylen Harmon.
Coles recently had the chance to thank Harmon, decades after her social studies lessons left a lasting impression on him.
“A bit of déjà vu, just trying to look and think about where I had things,” Harmon said, reflecting on returning to the same classroom where she once taught 6th-grade social studies.
It was in that classroom where Coles, now a travel vlogger, first met Harmon. At the time, he wasn’t particularly interested in history.
“I was not interested in learning about history,” Coles admitted.
That changed when Harmon showed him bracelets she had brought back from a trip to Egypt in July 1989.
“It made a deep impression on me to visit Egypt. Because Egypt is known to have gold. If you look at the tomb of King Tut like it’s just a gold plate of his face. And so I remember that as a kid, I remember thinking to myself, ‘One day, I’m going to go to Egypt,’” Coles said.
Nearly 30 years later, Coles fulfilled that dream.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her encouragement,” Coles said.
For Harmon, inspiring her students was a full-circle moment, drawing from her own experience as a student at the all-black Carver School in Salem during segregation.
“I got my joy of history and social studies from my teacher, who was Mr. Prunty. He said, ‘Pay attention. One day you’re going to go to these places and you better listen.’ And I said, ‘He’s out of his mind.’ Because at that point, we couldn’t even–by race–go to Lakeside, the amusement park, or Longwood,” Harmon said.
Coles specifically recalls learning about the Black Pharaohs, a topic not included in the standard curriculum but one that Harmon made sure to teach.
“One of the things that she talked about that was kind of risky for her, was talking about the Black Pharaohs,” said Coles. “She added a little bit of Black History.”
“I saw myself as a Nubian Pharoah. And if you go to Nubia, you see my color,” said Coles, pointing to his arm. “And when I went there, they told me, ‘Oh, you’re my brother. You’re my brother.’”
“This is what I felt in 6th grade, but I didn’t realize because for me, I was just bored,” said Coles about studying George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. “But when you tell me I can be a Black Pharaoh, at that point, it sparked my interest.”
Now, Coles has visited 27 countries and aims to inspire others to explore the world and learn about their own place in history.
“Our job is to take what our teachers taught us and to teach others and pass it down from generation to generation,” Coles said.
It’s the lasting impact of one teacher’s passion for history that helped bring the world alive for her students — and continues to do so today.