Edwardsville Kindergarten Teacher and Former Student Team Up to Teach Healthy Habits

EDWARDSVILLE - Kindergarten students at Goshen Elementary School in Edwardsville enjoyed a special presentation about nutrition.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, SIUE nursing student Camilla Thomas stopped by Jennifer Desse’s kindergarten class to share information about healthy eating. Thomas was Desse’s former student, which made the experience even more fun.

“I’ve seen the difference of how important it is for kids to get all of their nutrients,” Thomas said. “I just thought this is an incredibly important subject to teach a young population.”

After her tenure in the Edwardsville Community Unit School District #7, Thomas received an associate’s degree from Lewis and Clark Community College and became a registered nurse. She currently works on the inpatient surgery floor at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at SIUE.

As part of her SIUE community health nursing class, Thomas decided to bring a presentation to a local elementary school. She sees firsthand how important healthy eating is for her patients’ healing, and she was eager to share these facts with kindergartners at Goshen.

Collaborating with Desse was another easy choice. Thomas loved her time in Desse’s classroom, and Desse was equally excited to welcome her former student back.

“It’s exciting to see Camilla and learn about her, what her future plans are,” Desse said. “That’s not a chance I get very often, because it’s such a big leap from when they’re 5 to when they’re 20. Often, I sort of lose track as they move on through schools…It is really nice to have somebody and see them grown-up and moving along in their career.”

The reunion was sweet, and the kids were “amazed” to learn that Thomas used to be Desse’s student.

Thomas went through basic information about nutrition and healthy eating, and every student received a small snack pack to encourage them to pack healthy snacks. Thomas highlighted the importance of teaching these lessons at a young age.

“It’s so important to teach kids specifically about what foods can do, the benefits of each food, instead of just teaching them black and white, this food is bad for you. Anything can be okay in moderation,” she advised. “Just getting children to find foods they like is so important, and find ways of eating foods they like. But I think it’s important not to label anything as good or bad because that can cause other problems down the road.”

Desse agreed with the value of sharing healthy habits with students. The kindergartners are learning math, science and reading, but also how to be people and how to take care of themselves.

Desse tries to model healthy habits and talk through these ideas often. Welcoming Thomas to her class reinforced these points for students.

“We talk a lot about social and emotional learning and practicing and not giving up, persevering through struggles, that kind of thing — it’s not really the math and reading curriculum. It’s like everything else wrapped into one,” Desse added. “We just sort of build it into every day, talking about healthy habits and choices that we can make.”

As the school year continues, Desse will continue introducing these lessons, and Thomas looks forward to connecting more with her Edwardsville hometown community.

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