“I knew I wanted to do something serving others,” said St. Francis Xavier Catholic School second-grade teacher Virginia Campbell. She decided to become a teacher after taking a career aptitude test during her first semester in college.

“Schools are just a great environment to work in,” she added.

The career educator has been a schoolteacher for 16 years. She began her career in Tyler, Texas before moving to Vicksburg to teach kindergarten at Grove Street. After having children she was a stay-at-home mom until taking a job at St. Francis when her children started school there.

Campbell believes that second grade is crucial to a child’s education. She likes to make sure her students can read one grade level above by the time they leave her class.

“I don’t like them leaving me with any weaknesses” she said “They’re all individuals and you have to learn to work with them and guide them.”

Campbell says she has to know she is reaching every child and that they’re learning.

“If I don’t reach them then I need to redo what I’m doing,” Campbell said. “My students are great.”

Campbell, a native of Texas, attended the University of Mississippi as an undergraduate where she majored in elementary education. It was at Ole Miss that she met her husband. After graduating from Ole Miss she attended Mississippi College where she received her masters degree in elementary education.

Campbell says she doesn’t know what tomorrow holds, but she loves teaching and she loves St. Francis. Both of her children attended the school.

“We have a great school. We take good care of our children here,” said Campbell. She says she enjoys working for the Catholic school because she can watch children grow from being in kindergarten to being seniors. She also likes that it’s a religious school and that prayer is a part of every day.