George Washington Middle School\u2019s Grade Seven Academic Principal Carmen Sanders has been selected by her alma mater as Educator of the Year, a Virginia Tech Influential Black Alumni Award. The award acknowledges the achievements of Virginia Tech alumni who have contributed significantly to the field of education.<\/p>\n
“Carmen exudes all that is necessary to reach kids. She helps to pull out of them their very best. She loves the students she works with and it is definitely reciprocated. Students in our learning community leaned on her for not only academic support\u00a0but moral and for advice on matters outside of school as well, many of them considering her their school mom,\u201d said school counselor and colleague Tracie Jackson.<\/em><\/p>\n Sanders was born to lead. As class president in her high school freshman year, she was tasked by her student government association (SGA) advisor to train the other SGA members on leadership styles and how they impact interactions with others. She had to develop a lesson plan and activities\u2014that\u2019s when she knew she wanted to be a teacher. The experience was transformational and birthed a passion in Sanders around teaching, coaching and cultivating leaders.<\/p>\n Sanders was elected class president in her sophomore year, won a seat on the SGA\u2019s executive board as junior class vice president\u2014the first underclassman ever to do so\u2014and was the SGA president in her\u00a0senior year. These early experiences set her on a path to leadership that she continues to walk today.<\/p>\n During her first year of teaching, she felt quite challenged. She taught a ninth-grade English class composed of 17 boys, in addition to two other classes, one of which was drama. Teaching a class of teenage boys during her first year in the classroom was a difficult task. But through the experience, she learned how to coach and empower them so that they had the skills they needed to be successful in English 10.<\/p>\n Because she was a passionate student leader, when she became an educator she got involved with the SGA. In addition to teaching English, she became an SGA advisor and taught leadership skills.<\/p>\n Before long, she was back in the classroom as a student, working on her master\u2019s in educational administration while teaching. She took on administrative tasks as they became available. When an assistant principal was absent, she would carry a radio and work lunch and bus duty and handle day-to-day activities of an academic principal.<\/p>\n