Spending time with her family while rooting for the Washington Redskins football team, the Nationals baseball team, or the University of Virginia, is where sports marketing and economics and personal finance teacher Michelle Crumpler would like to find herself outside of school.
Going into her 16th year of teaching, but first year in Prince George County, Crumpler has taught in many schools, including South Hampton High School, Albemarle High School, and Fairfax County schools.
“I wanted to move home and they had a marketing position available,” Crumpler said. “I wanted to be close to family.”
As someone who draws inspiration from her family, Crumpler felt being closer to them was important.
“[My inspiration is] my husband,” Crumpler said in a previous email interview conducted in August. “He motivated me to be the best person I can be, every day!”
For Crumpler, education started in Windsor, Virginia, where she graduated from Windsor High School. She then graduated from Elon College in Elon, North Carolina with a business management degree.
Crumpler started off as a buyer for retail, when she decided that teaching might be the right path for her.
“I wanted to make a difference,” Crumpler said. “[I also] really wanted to be in that community.”
As her first year as a sports marketing teacher, as opposed to a marketing teacher, Crumpler loves being able to mix marketing with sports.
“In all honestly I love it because I am a sports fanatic,” Crumpler said.
While “interacting with the students” is Crumpler’s favorite part of the job, her least favorite part has nothing to do with the students.
“[My least favorite part] I would say is all the stuff we have to do behind the scenes,” Crumpler said.
Surrounding herself with students every day, Crumpler makes it a point to continue her connection with students after they leave the classroom.
“[The most rewarding part about teaching is] seeing what happens to my students after they graduated [and] seeing them 4 or 5 years later and [seeing] what they’re doing with their lives,” Crumpler said.
