N.J. Teacher of the Year, Burlco's Jeanne DelColle, "just a ball of energy"

Social studies teacher Jeanne DelColle has climbed pyramids, trekked through jungles, and put in time on archaeological digs.

But as thrilling as her world travels have been, this dedicated educator says there's nothing quite like the feeling she gets when students tell her she has inspired them to become teachers.

"You're so proud," said DelColle, 40, of the Burlington County Institute of Technology's Westampton campus. "You're like parent-proud."

On Wednesday, she was given even more reason to be proud.

DelColle was named New Jersey Teacher of the Year at the state Board of Education meeting in Trenton. In addition to recognition from Gov. Christie and acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, DelColle was awarded a six-month sabbatical later in the school year, during which she will give presentations around the state and take part in national activities, including meeting with President Obama.

The Marlton resident will get the use of a car and travel expenses, too. Pretty nice for doing a job she says is its own reward.

As she wrote in her application, "When my love for teaching inspires my students to go out into the world and help others, then I have done my job both personally and professionally."

At heart, DelColle is a hometown girl who wants to show kids like herself that they can go anywhere, do anything.

This intrepid voyager didn't set out to be a high school teacher. A 1989 graduate of Willingboro's old John F. Kennedy High, DelColle attended Richard Stockton College, majoring in political science. She was thinking about becoming a lawyer and pursued a graduate degree in England. While there, she clerked at a law firm. She hated it.

"I wasn't helping anyone," said DelColle, daughter of a newspaper ad salesman and a waitress-turned-bookkeeper. "I was just doing paperwork."

When she came home, she turned to her former English teacher and mentor, Glen Zuroski, for counsel.

"He said, 'I told you that when you were 16 you'd make a great teacher. Why don't you try it?' "

She decided to give substitute teaching a go.

"I absolutely adored it," she said. "I had never been so exhausted. I never worked so hard and had so much fun."

In her 15 years of teaching, she has had summers free to satisfy her desire to do global good, paid for in part by money she has earned as a cheerleading coach. Among her travels: surveying a reef in the Bahamas; an archaeological dig in Jordan; trips to Belize, Egypt, and Mexico; and, last summer, environmental-protection work in Mongolia.

Every time she returns, she tells her students all about it - the living history.

"The kids start to get a different perspective," she said. "It makes it come alive to them."

She hopes her experiences will encourage them to reach out in their own lives.

"My stories make the world a little less scary," DelColle said. "They think, 'If Ms. D. could do that, so could I.' "

Over the years, she said, she has heard from former students who said they became teachers because of her.

"It's more than a thrill," she said. "It's knowing I've done my job."

Her colleagues and students in Burlington County say she does that and more.

DelColle's state award wasn't announced to the students Wednesday. "She wanted to do that on her own," Lucas said. "She has students she's very committed to."

But word was leaked to a couple of students.

"Oh, my God, Ms. DelColle is awesome!" junior Caitlin Proto said Wednesday.

Though she isn't in any of DelColle's classes this year, Caitlin said that on most afternoons, she still goes to the teacher's room to chat about countless things.

Taylor Johnson, a senior, said she had been able to count on DelColle time and again - to coach her on reading and test-taking, to help her create a website, and more.

"I have come to her with so many issues," Taylor said, "and she'll help you every step of the way."