An inspiration, a high achiever, an educator — Faith Taylor is all of these. Faith graduated from T.C. Williams High School in 1992 and returned here two years ago as a 10th to 12th grade AVID teacher. Faith recently said that receiving the Sharland Family Scholarship from the SFA 33 years ago meant that she was able to achieve her dream of a college education. Faith encourages her students to get good grades so that they have a chance to earn an SFA scholarship, too. She makes sure that they know how special and rare the SFA is. She tells her students, “This organization is here just for you – just to help AC students attend college!” Faith’s love for her students is obvious and she says that the feeling of coming full circle and being able to encourage her students to go to college is one of the great highlights of her career.
Faith’s road in life has been difficult, and, more than most, she has had to rely on her tenacity to overcome obstacles to achieve success. She was placed in foster care as an eight-year-old and stayed in the system until age 13 when she was adopted by the foster mother who had taken her in at age 11. Faith was adopted while a student at George Washington Middle School and says, “It’s rare to be adopted as a 13-year-old. I was facing being placed in a group home, but my foster mother stepped up to adopt me. Since I was adopted so late, my mother had not had time to save any money for my college education.”
Faith credits her adoptive mother, Ruth Catron, with changing the course of her life, but also says her success depended on several high school teachers and principal John Porter. She says of Porter, “He was a natural leader, and we just loved him!” From her cheerleading coach Beverly Lawson, she learned the importance of exercise and to push herself to do her best. From her drama teacher Flo West, she developed a love of theater. Faith especially credits her English teacher Nancy Donley with changing her life. Ms. Donley was a tough and demanding teacher who saw Faith’s potential to do better in school. With Ms. Donley’s guidance Faith came to see that she needed to improve her work ethic. She grew from resenting Ms. Donley’s academic pressure to deeply respecting and appreciating her advice. The strong work ethic that Ms. Donley instilled in Faith has served her well.
Faith speaks very fondly of her time in high school. While there she threw herself into many activities including cheerleading, Project Discovery, and the Black Cultural Alliance. She was Senior Class Vice President, and even Homecoming Queen!
Faith graduated from Norfolk State University in 1998 with a B.A. in English and a minor in theatre arts and received a master’s in education in 2011. Faith has lived in several different states and has toured the East Coast with the Richmond-based theater company Theatre IV. She also worked as a speech and drama teacher for fifteen years (including for four years at GW Middle School) and as an English teacher. In addition, she has worked in higher education in Student Services and in Admissions and now loves being back in Alexandria as an AVID teacher.
Family is very important to Faith. As a young adult she reconnected with her biological family and is still close to them. Faith’s first husband died in 2017, and she remarried last July. Faith says lovingly, “I have one biological daughter, two bonus children from my first husband, and one bonus child from my current marriage”.
Reconnecting with her biological father led Faith to discover her Nottoway Tribe heritage. She is active with her tribe and has even met cousins and other Nottoway family. Faith helps to plan the annual Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Pow Wow attended by over four thousand people in Surry County, VA, and she enjoys learning words in the Nottoway language and doing tribal dances with family.
Even though Ms. Jeffries Taylor grew up in foster care and faced financial hardship as an adult – especially after becoming a widowed mother– she describes herself as blessed. She feels blessed that she was adopted, blessed to have received an education, blessed to have a family and to be at home teaching in the city she loves. Once a Titan, always a Titan is most definitely true of Faith!
Many of Faith’s students have difficult lives, and she can relate to their struggles. She has dreams for them and says they are so deserving of the same chances that came her way. The SFA invested in Faith Jeffries Taylor 33 years ago, and now she encourages today’s students to believe that they, too, are worthy of our investment in their futures.
