Ms. Parker, who teaches Business and Personal Finance, went to George Mason University, Germanna Community College, and finally the University of Virginia, acquiring her undergrad and Master’s degree. She taught here for 11 years before going elsewhere, and now she’s back after 8 years.

Parker enjoys spending her free time with her kids and watching sports.

“Football is my ultimate favorite sport to watch. I used to love playing sports before I got all old and broken,” she said.

For 26 years she’s been teaching in places such as Fairfax County, for elementary, and Stafford County, for elementary, middle, and high school. She loves to teach and learn new things.

“It just kept coming back to teaching kids, learning all the time, I’m always learning when I’m teaching. So, I just the enjoy the whole education process,” she said.

Ms. Parker was here at the beginning of Forge and has been fortunate enough to see it evolve as it has.

“ I was here when Colonial Forge first opened, so I just like to see the way that it grew and watch the kids grow up…it’s very different,” she states. “Not as crowded. Everybody knew everybody; all the teachers knew all the teachers no matter what department they’re in. It was really fun, everybody supported each other. You went from different departments to different departments and everybody kinda communicated, had a good time, hung out. I had a lot of good friends from here. There’s a few teachers left now that were here at the beginning,” Parker says.

With this being her first year teaching Business and Personal Finance, everything’s very new and exciting.

“It’s the first time that I’ve gone over this stuff with the kids. So, everything’s exciting because I need to watch and see how they react to different subjects,” she said.