From fly fishing on her family’s boat to free jumping off bridges with her dad and sister, Mrs. Summer Craig has experienced many things throughout her life other than teaching.

Mrs. Craig is a new teacher this year here at Forge. She has taught at various different schools here in Virginia including A.G Wright and Stafford Middle School, as well as teaching English in North Carolina and Los Angeles. When moving to Stafford, Colonial Forge was her first choice of schools to teach at.

Throughout her years of teaching, Craig has many memories from different years. One of her favorite memories is from this year when one of her students brought in food for the class.

“One of my students in my 11th grade class brought in tacos for everyone and his dad brought him in breakfast burritos so we had tacos and burritos while we did our work,” Craig said.

Craig comes from a military family and has traveled to many different states. She moved around frequently as a child because her father was a Marine.

“When I was younger my dad was also a Marine and he really liked going to see stuff and he was one of those guys who was really interested in everything,” Craig said.

Craig husband is also a Marine, which is what has allowed her to teach in a few different states. Every year they would trade off deciding which coast to go to.

“We tried to ping pong between our home states. He’s from Upstate New York and I’m from LA and so we would do every other base on the coasts,” Craig said.

She and her family do variety of different things, Craig owns a boat and will go fly fishing. She remembers a time where she had  to face her fear of heights with her father and sister.

“In Montana my dad and my family were all there and my sister flew out from California and I came from here and we would go fly fishing and gem mining. There was this spot that we would go fishing and there is this huge overpass in the middle of nowhere over a river where all the locals would jump off,“ Craig said.

Her father, who has lived in Montana for a long time, has always wanted to jump the bridge. Craig was hesitant at first.

“I’m thinking I’m scared of heights. Then my sister who’s an athlete goes ‘let’s do it dad’. At that point I can’t let this go and not do it with my dad. Note to self only jump off of things if your parents want to do it,” Craig said.

 Even though she was scared of free falling from a bridge into a river she says that it’s a memory that her, her sister, and father will always remember.

“It was probably the best thing ever,” Craig said.

Having a career in teaching isn’t all the Craig does. She explores and does lots of things that you wouldn’t expect. She hopes to continue teaching at Forge and to create and share her memories with others.

One of her past students expressed how well Craig balances teaching and fun. Her student said something that Craig carries with her. “She said ‘Mrs Craig at the end of the year when I look back I said I didn’t think we did anything in your class. I thought we just had a good time all year but when we took the test I knew everything.’ And I was like wow, if I made it that enjoyable for you to learn that was my goal that you enjoyed my class but you also learned all the material,” Craig said.

Her experience here, so far, has been a positive one. “Oh it’s been fantastic I hope that they keep me.its great, the teaching staff that I work with is wonderful and the kids are the best kids that I’ve ever taught. I love it here,” Craig said.