Some people know exactly what they want to be when they grow up. That wasn’t the case for Becky Hoffman, Sarasota County’s 2026 Elementary School Teacher of the Year.
Growing up on a 65-acre farm in Maryland, Hoffman was surrounded by pigs, chickens, rabbits, and even a calf that she bottle-fed. After high school, she took her time exploring options in college, first considering an art major, then switching to business, where she discovered a love for business law. But she quickly learned the subject was too dry for her, so she changed her major to English, thinking she might one day teach at the college level.
Things still didn’t feel like an exact fit. When her dad encouraged her to “do what you love, and everything else will fall into place,” she listened. Hoffman took a gap year, which led her to open a family business in the restaurant industry…