Her lesson plan takes her all the way to South Africa. Dr. Adrienne Hoard is going on 20 years as an MU professor. She's taught hundreds of students about the power of art and color and her lessons can leave a lasting impression.

"As a teacher she's great. She knows her field perfectly and she's a very very intelligent woman," Dr. Hoard's student Melissa McDonnell said.

And teaching won't be Hoard's only legacy. In 1996, she began traveling to South Africa to interact with and photograph a group of people called Ndebele. She now makes the trip every year, producing photos with a life of their own that goes beyond the image you see.

"It's their story. It's what they've been saying to me. It's what they've allowed me to see and be apart of to interface," MU professor and artist Dr. Adrienne Hoard said.

Hoard focused on the Ndebele women who are artists and warriors who protect their culture through tradition. They create beautiful wall paintings and fabricate intricate bead work with a spiritual legacy.

While photographing the women, Hoard gets to see how the people are growing.

"It's just been interesting to watch their development, evolution, new babies, husbands deceasing and disappearing, sons going and coming, and wedding its been interesting," Hoard said.

And in chronicling their story, her photographs empower the Ndebele people.

"If you read the pictures and what she talks about in those pictures you'll see that she really has taken the essence of that period and how the women feel during that period," Ndebele princess Ntombizaodwa Mahlangu said.

Hoard also helps the Ndbele women market their artwork and make a profit. Still, Hoard says the Ndbele do more for her than she's done for them.

"They've made me much stronger much more confident to go and do and they inspire me all the time because art is their life," Hoard said.

That connection says Hoard will last beyond her years.