Vivian Walker - Class of 1959
Vivian M. Walker is a retired educator. From an early age, she knew education would be her profession. Vivian graduated from George P. Phenix High School in 1959. She earned a BA degree in elementary education from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois in 1963, and a MA in elementary education from Hampton University (then, Hampton Institute) in 1968. With many more classes, courses, seminars, and experiences, she has continued to hone her craft.
Vivian retired from public education in 2001, having been a classroom teacher for most of her career. She taught young people from very impoverished situations as well as those from very affluent families. Her classroom practices earned her the Teacher of the Year Award for Newport News Schools, and the opportunity to serve on the SREB Team for the school division. In this capacity she traveled and learned from some of the top minds in education in the country. Once she decided to leave the classroom, she worked in Staff Development for the school division until her retirement. In this capacity, she designed and facilitated workshops for teachers and administrators. After retirement, Vivian joined the staff of aha! Process as a consultant. In this capacity, she traveled throughout the United States facilitating workshops on economic diversity, and its impact on the classroom. Some of her most rewarding teacher training was done in Kenya. As a member of her church’s mission team, she helped design workshops for teachers there, and assisted with the facilitation of these workshops in both Nairobi, and on the island of Rusinga.
Vivian served as the Christian Education Director for her church, Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple, in Hampton for five and one half years. In this position she wrote curriculum, selected resources, designed classes, assembled teaching staffs, did teacher training, monitored classes, and collected data to help the educational program of the church flourish. Vivian enjoys making quilts and has been doing so for 30+ years. It is this love of quilting that brought her back to a classroom. She now teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced quilting classes in the OSHER Program at Hampton University.
Vivian and her husband, Elbert have been married for 56 years, and have two wonderful children, Michael, and Myra. These two have given their parents the world’s greatest grandchildren.
Her favorite scripture is Ephesians 4:11-13 and believes God did create her to teach. A couple of years ago, a friend told her, “You seem happiest, when you are in front of a group teaching.” She smiled and agreed.