Grant Abbott walked back into Mason schools as a teacher in 2024, and one of his students was Camden Malich, the son of the first-grade teacher who once taught him.
That detail anchors a feature published on the Mason City Schools website, written by Mason student Bailee Engel. The article traces a teaching chain that stretches back to 1999, when Nichole Wilson joined the district as an English teacher.
Wilson met Amy Goldfeder, now Amy Malich, during Malich's senior year in 2001. Malich described Wilson as a teacher who went beyond literature. "She knew all of her students and made connections with us to help us feel seen as people and not just students," Malich said in the article.
Wilson credited her own grandmother with shaping her path. Her grandmother filled the house with books and encouraged her to read and express her thoughts. Wilson said she wanted to "nurture student growth in the ways it had been modeled for me."
Malich graduated from William Mason High School, earned an undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Science from Ohio State in 2005 and a master's in Early Childhood Education from Xavier University in 2007. She began teaching at Mason that same year.
One of her students was Grant Abbott.
Malich remembered meeting Abbott at open house with his mother. "She told me that he loved school and loved reading," Malich said. "He always had a book with him and was always willing to help me by participating or leading in our class."
Abbott graduated from Mason High School in 2019 and studied Secondary Integrated English Education at Miami University, with a minor in English Literature and Creative Writing. He returned for a student-teaching placement in 2022 and officially became a Mason teacher in 2024.
Abbott said his Mason teachers, including Malich, Wilson, Mrs. Lin and Mrs. Lehman, "showed genuine care for every single student in my class." He remembered Wilson as someone who "pushed us to be our best and immerse ourselves in our own learning."
The chain came full circle when Abbott began teaching eighth graders and found Camden Malich, Amy Malich's son, in his class. According to the article, Malich described the moment on Instagram, calling it a full-circle experience: Abbott had been her student her very first year teaching, and now her son Camden was Abbott's student his first year teaching.
Engel, who had Abbott as a student teacher in 2022, wrote that the connection inspired her to consider teaching herself. After visiting Malich's classroom and watching her interact with students, Engel wrote, "I no longer wanted to cover this amazing connection; I wanted to be a piece of it."
