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Nefertiti Reaffirmed My Calling as a Teacher

By Valerie D. White
Black College Wire

Every now and then a professor has the opportunity to teach a student in whom she can pour all her knowledge. A student who, like a sponge, is able to absorb all the mentoring and know-how that is thrown her way. A student who has the aptitude to handle challenging assignments and emerge unscathed and sparkling. Such a student, for me, was Nefertiti Williams.

Valerie D. White

I thought for sure this must be a case of mistaken identity and that the young woman whose body was found in her home was really not Nefertiti at all. This had to be some sort of absurd misinformation. This could not be the woman who had so much promise. Not the woman whom I was looking forward to having in class next semester so that I could continue the pleasant task of filling her with knowledge and know-how.

I remember her bubbly personality and the way she affectionately said “uh huh, child” and how she teased me about cooking only for her next time and not the rest of the student media staff. You see, she believed that she was my favorite and rightfully so.

Nefertiti was an up-and-coming talent, a student who was definitely going to be a mover and shaker. I was looking forward to helping mold this young woman with so much ambition and talent to match. After all, for a professor such a caliber of student comes only every now and then.

Photo credit: The Famuan Students like Nefertiti Williams are career-defining and reafffirming, Valerie White says.

My thought was that she could receive some training and probably in a few semesters earn a paid position.

Well, she did take my advice to “aim high” and had been soaring ever since, earning the position of news editor in record time. Her rapid development and unfettered tenacity were so impressive that she was being considered for an even higher position at The Famuan, the award-winning, thrice-weekly student newspaper. She had become a serious newswoman, a talent to be reckoned with who never shrank from a challenge or hard work.

Yes, the reward for me was having an opportunity to work with Nefertiti. Her kind demeanor and expressions of gratitude will continue to be cherished moments during my career. This future mover and shaker is gone much too quickly, but not before she left her mark on my heart.

Students like Nefertiti are career defining. She reaffirmed my calling as a teacher, mentor, role model. It certainly has been my pleasure to work with her. After all, God blesses a professor with this privilege only every now and then.

Valerie D. White is an assistant professor of journalism at Florida A&M University and chair of the Black College Communication Association. She can be reached at [email protected].

Posted Nov. 26, 2006