MC grad’s passion is helping studentsAugust 03, 2023

When Meredith Walker was at Midland High School (MHS) in the early 2000s, she worked as a Teacher’s Aide for Vivian Renfrow’s kindergarten class at Santa Rita Elementary School.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to work in education and help students,” Walker said.

In 2003, she graduated from MHS and started taking classes at Midland College (MC).

“It took me five years to get an associate degree,” Walker stated.  “I was working for a company that processed leased return vehicles for GM and had my first child Jacob in 2006.  However, I never lost sight of my goal.”

In 2008, Walker, a single mother, moved to Lubbock and enrolled in Texas Tech University (TTU), where she majored in Multidisciplinary Studies specializing in 4th-8th grade Science and Social Studies.  She also worked at a local daycare designing lesson plans and writing curriculum.  In addition, Walker was a substitute teacher at Talkington Middle School in Lubbock, an all-girls school where, at the time, the majority of students were low-income.  

In December 2010, she graduated from TTU with a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate.

“I did some of my student teaching at Dunbar Middle School in Lubbock,” Walker explained.  “During those days, Lubbock ISD split students who were associated with gangs between Dunbar and Alderson Middle School.”   

It wasn’t long before Walker had made a name for herself.  The diminutive 25-year-old blonde was able to control a classroom of predominantly African-American males and get them to learn something.  District officials took notice and contacted her to see if she would be interested in interviewing for a 7th- and 8th-grade teaching position at Alderson Middle School, one of the two Lubbock ISD “gang” schools. 

“When I walked into the interview room, there were ten men sitting at the table,” Walker recalled.  “It was a little intimidating, but I knew what type of job it was, and I figured that if I couldn’t handle an interview with ten grown, educated men, I didn’t have any business teaching gang students!  I must have done well in the interview because they immediately hired me for the job, and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding jobs I ever had.

“It wasn’t easy.  It was the middle of the school year, and the teacher whose position I assumed had been arrested for distributing marijuana to the students.  It was in an extremely dangerous part of town—the parking lot was gated in order to keep the cars safe. Right after I first started, a fight broke out in class, and science tables were thrown across the room.  I just took it all in stride.  I wanted the students to know that they weren’t alone. 

“Because many of the boys were older than traditional 7th and 8th graders, they were also bigger and taller than average middle school students.  They were over 6 feet tall.  I’m just a little over 5 feet tall.  I didn’t care.  They needed help, and I understood their need.” 

By the end of the school year (May 2011), Walker had managed to increase STAAR Testing scores from 20 percent passing to 80 percent passing!

“I was proud of what I had accomplished,” she said.  “In fact, I might have stayed there, but in 2012, I was pregnant with my second son Braylon, and so I moved back to Midland and was a stay-at-home mom for a few years.”

In 2014, Walker had her third child—a little girl named Ella—and between 2015 and 2017, the blended family of five lived in Crowley Texas where Walker was a Special Education teaching aide and in Mansfield, Texas, where she worked with 5th and 6th grade students. 

In 2017, after a divorce, Walker and her three children moved to Midland once again, and she worked as a legal secretary in the fields of insurance litigation, estates and probate, and oil and gas.

“Working for a law firm paid the bills, but I really missed interacting with students,” she said.  “So, when I saw that Midland College had a job opening for a financial aid specialist, I jumped at the chance to once again get back into education.

“Working at MC is in my genes. My father Geoff Walker was an adjunct English professor at MC for over 20 years, and my mother Laura McCabe started the Students in Philanthropy program at MC and served as the Students in Philanthropy Advisor for over 15 years.”

From 2018-2021, Walker was promoted to various other positions in MC’s Student Services division where she had the opportunity to not only advise current students, but also recruit future MC students.  In October 2021, she transferred from the Student Services Division to the Institutional Advancement Division and currently works in the Scholarships and Alumni Office helping students attain donor-directed scholarships.  In June, she was promoted to Associate Director of Scholarships.

“I love helping students,” she explained.  “I have worked with and advised students living in tents, wealthy students, those in high school and nontraditional students.  It doesn’t matter what their backgrounds are and where they are in life. If they have a goal and are working to achieve that goal, it’s my job to help them get there.  School never goes anywhere, and it’s never too late to make the right choices.  I’ve certainly proven that in my life.  I tell students, ‘Don’t give up--just go at your own pace to get that degree. It will happen!’”

Walker is set to obtain her master's degree in Public Administration in December 2023.