Henrico's Top Teachers – Jennifer Krug

As a student, Jen Krug was blessed with the ability to learn quickly. When a teacher explained something to her class, she’d get it right away – and then she’d help others get it, too.

“I would be bored the rest of the way,” she recalled. “Some kids doodle, some kids draw – I would make notes [from the lesson] for my friends.”

Krug ultimately followed her passion for science – sparked primarily by the action-packed MacGyver television series – and became a chemist, but later quit her job to start a family with her husband. She missed her career, though, and began tutoring students in science.

“The more I tutored, the more students were coming to me and saying, ‘You would make a really good teacher – you explain things so well.’”

She listened to them and began teaching homeschooled children about 10 years ago after earning her teacher’s certificate. After five years teaching for the Southside Homeschool Academy, she moved to Henrico High School in 2015 and Deep Run High School the following year, where she’s been ever since.

Krug’s patience and creativity shine through to her students.

“She has made such a difference in the way [my son] is able to accept the information that she is teaching and is there for him any time he does not understand something,” one parent wrote in a nomination letter. “She is willing to take time out of her own personal schedule to be there morning noon and night to ensure he has a better focus and understanding of the material.”

Wrote another parent: “She is the best of the best. She challenges her students, makes learning enjoyable and connects with her students and their parents. She is powerful and knows what she is doing.”

As a visual learner, Krug has developed ways to make a challenging subject clearer for her students – such as color-coding data showing pressure, volume and temperature levels in a recent lesson.

“I see patterns in things,” she said. “In science, there’s more than one way to get to the right answer, so I try to find what works for the kids and give them an alternative.”

Trying to reach students who may not have any interest in science provides a daily challenge that she enjoys, too.

“What percentage of my kids will end up being chemists – one percent, if I’m lucky?” she said. “So I have to capture their attention while they’re here. They’re going to remember the fun labs, the ones that are exciting.”

Krug often sets up labs but doesn’t tell the students what the chemical reactions they’re trying will produce. The results typically wow them. She enjoys chemistry because of the speed at which visible changes occur.

“It takes awhile in biology for a plant to grow,” she said.

One student who told her she hated science later became so enthralled with it after Krug’s class that she started a “Save the Seas” club at the school to recycle and reuse plastic bottles, turning a number into bird-feeders at Deep Run.

Though Krug found happiness in the classroom, she is troubled by the double standard she has observed in the science community in the region.

After she quit her job as a chemist in 2001, she learned that men doing the same job at the same company were earning $15,000 a year more than she was. She’s found that companies today are offering women with her qualifications less money than she made 18 years ago.

“In the Richmond area, it’s very difficult to be a female scientist,” she said. “Women are not getting paid equally.”

To her students, she is as much a role model as a teacher.

“My son really enjoys her classes and tells me that Mrs. Krug is the best and most hardworking teacher,” one parent wrote. “She makes sure all students feel valued. She cares about her students’ futures. My son tells me that Mrs. Krug has no idea how much he gains from her and that she gives him the opportunity not just to learn the knowledge of chemistry, but the potential to cultivate him into a better person.”