April 30, 2025
Spring 2025 Graduate: Camille Watkins
Name: Camille Watkins
Major/Degree Program: English Secondary Education
Hometown/Current City: Raleigh, NC
Hobbies/interests: Reading, baking, watching TV, and playing video games
What’s your favorite memory from your time at ECU?
My favorite memory from my time at ECU is when I was able to go to New York City with the Education Community of Scholars/Living Learning Community. I had so much fun while my friends and I visited Central Park, museums, restaurants, and walked around the city, and I loved seeing Aladdin on Broadway!
What inspired you to pursue a career in education?
I always knew I wanted to be a teacher from a young age, as I had grown up in the classroom (due to both my parents being teachers) and felt comfortable in a school setting. However, I truly knew that I wanted to be a teacher when, in high school, I had the opportunity to become a peer tutor in Social Studies. While I didn’t tutor in English, my current content area, I enjoyed finding new ways to explain a subject in order to help my peers better understand the content.
Who has made the biggest impact on your journey here?
Dr. Todd Finley, Dr. Manning, and the other faculty within the College of Education have had the largest impact on my journey at ECU. Their unwavering support and dedication to each student has been instrumental for my success, as they’ve been readily available and provide helpful words of encouragement and advice.
What’s next after graduation?
After graduation, I’m going to be a high school English teacher for Wake County Public Schools!
What advice would you give to future College of Education students?
I would encourage future students to be organized and to always ask for help. Organization is crucial for success both in college and in the classroom, as assignments, due dates and unexpected pivots for student learning can be sudden. Ensuring you’re adequately organized and prepared can help you easily navigate the sudden challenges that come with student and professional life. Additionally, asking for help (from either professors, peers, or other faculty) is crucial, as these individuals and others can provide you with constructive feedback and help you improve, regardless of the situation.
How has the College of Education prepared you for the classroom (or your next step?)
The College of Education’s programs ensured that I was in the classroom in my sophomore year and beyond, and as a result, I’ve had ample experience working with students and creating effective lessons. Additionally, my internship experience has been extremely helpful (giving me necessary skills for instructing students and adapting based on their understanding) and has increased my love for the classroom and teaching itself. Because of my internship and practicum experiences, I’ve been able to effectively instruct my students and deliver engaging and beneficial lessons.
From Dr. Angela Novak (associate professor in elementary education): Educators are leaders, and Camille is a leader among educators. She exhibited this in her internship through Junior Achievement of Eastern North Carolina (June 2020). Camille created financial literacy lesson plans for kindergarten-second grades, administered surveys to students and instructors, and then compiled and analyzed participant data. This internship is not part of the required internship sequence in the B.S. in English Education sequence, but an optional undertaking Camille pursued for her edification. For her education internship, Camille has been teaching sophomore level English for Pitt County schools since August 2024. In this role, she creates and teaches lessons, including integrated multimedia ELA lessons that are aligned with the North Carolina standards. Teaching is leadership in a variety of ways: teachers are leaders and models for their students in the schools as well as leaders for their fellow students at the university, in the College of Education and beyond. While working in different organizations, Camille exhibited different leadership skills, honing her communication and organization skills. At the Pirate Academic Success Center, she worked as a tutor in spring 2023. For three summers, Camille was a camp counselor for middle schoolers in Garner, designing activities and supervising youth. In her final year at ECU, Camille worked in the Office of Educator Preparation, maintaining communication with and supporting university supervisors. She has already begun, and is poised to continue, to make an impact on the education profession and her community. She has earned several scholarships; most notably, Camille has participated as a Chancellor’s Fellow of the Honors College at ECU and a James H. and Connie M. Maynard Scholar in the education living learning community. She has years of demonstrated service to her community through a variety of projects from a community garden to volunteering at local schools and her church, as well as to the university as an ECU Apple Ambassador. Camille demonstrates leadership through her work as an educator-in-training, evidenced in two different internship roles and several different work experiences. These roles have strengthened her exhibited leadership skills in organization and communication, contributing to her vast potential as a teacher-leader. A double-honors scholar, it is no surprise that Camille decided to take additional courses and pursue the Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) courses as an add-on for her professional educator’s licensure. Over her four semesters as my student, Camille impressed me with her intelligence and achievement in her coursework. She contributed thoughtful and mature posts to the community discussion board, making intellectual and cultural connections that clearly demonstrate her teaching and leadership skills. Her authentic assessments, such as proposing a curricular model to the schoolboard, were thorough and well-researched. AIG courses have both undergraduate and graduate students, with different (but similar topically) assignments in each group; Camille’s products were consistently graduate level quality. After she finished my courses, she continued to communicate with me about her honors project, a collection of short stories with a fellow honors student. They later worked on submitting the short story collection as a professional book proposal to a publishing house. Camille Watkins exhibits clear exemplary academic achievement, an outstanding record of service to the University and the community, and both exhibited and potential leadership qualities.