Employee Story: Pam Walker
TEACHER-COUNSELOR, PEP HOPEWELL
In 1983 Nintendo released Mario Bros., Michael Jackson released Thriller and Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. It’s also the year Pam Walker became a teacher at PEP. Today, with more than four decades of classroom teaching under her belt, Walker is one of PEP’s longest-tenured employees. She is currently a teacher counselor at PEP Hopewell, one of PEP’s Day Treatment Centers.
By choice, Walker has always been a teacher in the classroom. When asked why, she said, “I’ve always enjoyed being in the classroom. I’ve always enjoyed teaching a lot. I really actually never get bored.” She says that teaching allows her to constantly draw upon her creativity and innovation and she believes she would have been bored if she took another role.
Walker says one of the reasons she has stayed at PEP so long is because of the friends she has made. She says that working at PEP is a whole different atmosphere than what you encounter elsewhere in the teaching world. The work is challenging, and the team members rely on one another. “It’s more like a family,” she says. “Everybody works so closely.”
She also cites the leadership as one of the reasons she likes working at PEP. Walker enjoys trying new ideas in the classroom and she says the principals she has worked under have always been supportive.
That innovation is apparent in Walker’s robust programming with students around community service. She regularly takes groups of students into the community to volunteer and her students love it. Sometimes students will tell her, “I wasn’t going to come in today, but I knew we were going to volunteer, so I came.” Walker believes these positive experiences in the community not only teach the students valuable social emotional lessons but also help them understand that they have a role in supporting their community.
“For kids who have faced a lot of failure, to see yourself in that light can be transformative,” Walker says. She also believes the flexibility that allows her to do this type of programming is special and specific to PEP.
When she isn’t at work, Walker enjoys doing water aerobics at the YMCA and organizing a bowling league with present and past colleagues from PEP. She’s also a Cleveland Guardians fan and is making plans to see them play in San Francisco. When her sweet tooth strikes, she goes for a peanut butter sundae.