In the kitchen at Lowndes County School District County Career Technology Center, culinary arts instructor Victoria Richardson moves between workstations, easily answering students’ questions about everything from cooking techniques to plate presentations.
She quickly eyes a batch of cookie dough one student shows for approval, offering a quick correction before moving on to the next task.
It’s a perfect example of the hands-on philosophy Richardson relies on in the kitchen and in the classroom.
“It’s all about hands-on,” she said. “Even when I was teaching math, we did a lot of hands-on things. … I feel like if you can turn something into a hands-on activity – even math, science, history, whatever – I feel like that’s the way to make kids really understand it and internalize it.”
It’s the same focused philosophy that recently landed Richardson the title of state Teacher of the Year, awarded by the Mississippi Association for Career and Technical Education. She will go on to compete for the Region IV title, vying against other career technical teachers from Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
“(It was announced) on the intercom the other day, … ‘Congratulations to Victoria Richardson for winning Teacher of the Year,’ and I was completely shocked,” Richardson said of learning she won the title.
The honor came as less of a shock to Susan McClelland, director of the CTC, who said Richardson is well-deserving of the award.
“Chef Richardson goes above and beyond for her students,” McClelland wrote in an email to The Dispatch. “For example, during her time off last week, she met some of her students at the CTC to give them an opportunity to continue to practice their skills and presentations for the SkillsUSA competition coming up in Jackson in a couple of weeks. She cares for each one of her students.”
Richardson started her career in the culinary sector, but as she puts it, “the hours are tough.” In search of a more family-friendly career option, she turned to teaching. What is now a 17-year career in education started at Columbus Christian Academy before she moved on to Columbus Municipal School District and then New Hope schools.
Then eight years ago, Richardson took the job at the career technology center.
“I’ve been here ever since the building opened, and this has been the best job I’ve ever gotten to do,” she said.
From carrying students to a competition each year hosted by workforce development organization SkillsUSA to having them participate each year in a regional “Chopped”-style competition, Richardson’s dedication extends outside of the classroom walls.
Her favorite part, she said, is simply sharing her own knowledge and seeing how it serves her students in the future.
“I love it when they come back to me after a few years, and they tell me all the cool things that they’re doing and how myself or how culinary helped change them somehow or another,” Richardson said. “I really have had a lot of that. I’ve had some that I taught at CCA, and now they’re teachers.”
Outside of the classroom and the kitchen, Richardson makes a priority of pushing for greater funding for career technical education.
In the fall, she and another instructor traveled to Washington D.C., to advocate for career technical education through SkillsUSA.
The importance of doing so, she said, lies in making sure students have the right resources in place to prepare them as well as possible for their future careers.
“It doesn’t start here,” she said. “It starts at a much bigger level, and if we don’t advocate from here, then I feel like we’ll never get the funding that we need. And if we don’t have the funding we need, we can’t supply our students with the best things that they need in order to be successful.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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