Spire Spring 2017

vision mission

Alumna Beth McMillion Craig Uses Teaching to Change Lives

Chester, Virginia, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2011 and received an REB Award from the Community Foundation of Richmond, Virginia, for “teacher excellence” and “inspiring classroom performance.” “Beth is one of the most naturally gifted teachers I have ever worked with,” said one of Craig’s co-workers at Ecoff. “Students in her classroom believe they can achieve anything, because their teacher believes this.” Craig acquired that inspirational attitude, she said, in part through the lessons she learned from professors at Bluefield College. In addition to developing a passion to teach at Bluefield, she said BC professors taught her how to be professional, to have a strong work ethic, and to believe in what she was doing. Most of all, she said, they instilled in her a desire to use her teaching gifts in service to others. “BC professors cared about me as a person first,” said Craig, whose 24 years of teaching also includes stints at Dudley Primary School in Bluefield and Falling Creek Elementary School in Richmond. “I developed so many relationships with them, and they made sure I knew that they cared.”

Bluefield College alumna Beth McMillion Craig, a 1992 graduate of the BC teacher education program, is enjoying a very successful career in teaching. But it’s the ways in which she’s using her gifts and talents to serve students on mission in Ethiopia that are giving her the most fulfillment in life. A four-year student-athlete and frequent member of the Academic Dean’s List while studying at Bluefield College, Craig is a first grade teacher at Ecoff Elementary School in

Developing servant leaders 4 Alumna and teacher Beth McMillion Craig provides hope to children of Ethiopia through the teaching of English and reading comprehension, vital skills they need to continue to have access to schooling.

It’s that same sense of caring and servant leadership that inspired Craig to use her teaching skills outside of