By Judy Willis
Special to The Mississippi Link
Education is the focus of part two of this series. Stacey Aileen Donaldson, national board project manager at the Mississippi Board of Education is featured. She has chosen Irma Scott Griffith as her “shero” and Sarah Nicholson as a future shining star in the profession.
“I was a quiet child, afraid of speaking in front of people,” says Stacey Aileen Donaldson. “Mrs. Griffith helped me overcome my shyness and rise above my fear. She saw my potential and was willing to put that extra time into me. She was a great teacher. She was my shero.”
Irma Scott Griffith always went above and beyond the call of duty. A business education teacher at Bassfield High School, she molded her students socially, emotionally, and intellectually. Griffith taught the basic skills and knowledge they would need to be gainfully employed and productive, contributing members of society and in the process, she shaped their futures. She was an excellent educator and mentor to hundreds helping them cultivate a love for life-long learning. Now deceased, Griffith’s legacy lives on. Like countless others, Donaldson has reaped innumerable benefits, making her own investment in the next generation of students and teachers just as Griffith did.
Advocate, architect, author, career counselor, coach, gatekeeper, mediator, messenger, technical specialist, sage, scientist and storyteller are just a few of the roles Donaldson has mastered over the course of her teaching career. But first and foremost, she is a woman of God.
“I was five years into my media experience when I began praying for what God was wanting me to do,” she says. “I questioned what my God-given purpose was and education was the answer.”
Donaldson says that when she became a teacher, she knew she would spiritually be held to a higher standard. “I had to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. As black educators we have a responsibility to prepare our students to be college and career ready. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had and by far the most important one.”
She is a National Board Certified Teacher and former Mississippi Teacher of the Year (2009-10) who has taught middle and high school and mentored National Board certification candidates, providing professional development to prepare pre-service and early career teachers for future certification.
Donaldson is completing her Ph.D. in educational technology and says using technology in the classroom helps teachers engage the students and puts learning in their hands. “With technology teachers are no longer the sole distributor of knowledge.”
Donaldson has always been willing to put her best foot forward. She says that “educators must exalt and encourage their peers to celebrate excellence whenever they see it in others.”
She witnessed that level of excellence in Nicholson when she was her daughter’s preschool teacher. Donaldson described the gains her 3-year-old made under Nicholson’s care as truly awesome. “Sarah has shown herself to be a quality teacher with a rich future. I could see then and know for certain now that as she grows in experience she will be a force to be reckoned with.”
Initially, Nicholson wanted to be a nurse, but teaching was always in her heart. “I knew that teaching was my calling. Making a difference in my student’s lives, has brought me so much joy.”
A third-grade teacher at George Elementary School in Jackson, she is the 2016 School Level Mississippi Teacher of the Year.
Nicholson says that teachers must be giving, loving and unconditionally caring. “Every flower blooms in its own perfect time. Our role as teachers is to nurture that flower until it comes into full bloom.
“In the future, I want to continue to create and instill a love for learning in all the students I’m blessed to teach. My dream is that they know how much they matter and that they are here for a reason.”
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