CHANDRA CAMPBELL, Career Academy Coordinator
Q: Were you born here in North Carolina or did you move here?
A: I was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Q: What is the impact that you want to make on students?
A: Now I’m serving as a career academy coordinator, which is a new position here at the school. Eventually, I would like to grow the academy to where it has 50 students per grade level, but I only have [freshman] this year and so hopefully they’ll take skills with them that they can use in college after high school.
Q: What sparked your interest in career skills?
A: When I first started at Wakefield Middle, we used to have big career fairs. They would have all these industry people come in and show students different things. I enjoyed that aspect of the middle school, and that opened up my eyes to taking students out and exposing them to different careers.
Q: What led you, if anything, to teaching career skills specifically?
A: I was laid off from my job, and so I thought about becoming a school counselor, and so I talked to them. My career counselor from North Carolina Central, suggested that I talk to a principal about creating that pathway. And just so happened they had an opening up for a business teacher that year, and my degree was in business, and that’s how I ended up teaching.
Q: What are some of your interests and favorite activities outside of school?
A: I enjoy yoga. I like going for walks. I enjoy Zumba and listening to different types of music I like.
Q: What kinds of music do you like?
A: Well, lately I’ve been into Soca and Pitbull and all of the little things. I enjoy going to games. We went to football games and basketball games. I enjoy that too.
Q: How has being an educator impacted your outlook on life?
A: It’s been very inspirational, especially by transitioning here. I saw some of the students that I taught, and then a student told me that she enjoyed my class so much that was the reason why she was taking virtual enterprise. I was so happy and elated that she remembered my class from 8th grade, and now she’s a senior, and I had an impact. Then another student, I suggested she’s in 9th grade, that she tried entrepreneurship. I want to say academy, but it’s an entrepreneurship program with Wake Forest, so she might get seed money to start her business. Little things like that make me happy.