LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Victoria Ruffin-Atkins was nominated by Tameka Powell, a member of the community.

"We are not those words!”

Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins echoes this statement of affirmation to her students every day! She's a product of the “hood.” She lived in nearly every one of Goldsboro’s housing projects. Growing up, Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins attended Goldsboro High School and watched as her friends were lost to the streets. Because of this, she has instant credibility with the young men and women who enroll in her class. More importantly, she knows they need saving, so she uses her own experiences to do for them what was done for her. Coming from a single parent home, Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins has faced some of the same challenges her students have. Therefore, she has a direct connection with each of them.

Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins began teaching in Wayne County in 2007.  Surrounded by young people facing the same challenges she once faced, she found solace in being a guiding light to those at-risk students with the most to lose. Watching her students succeed is healing to her. Some students come to school hungry, while others don't have a stable place to call home. They might have behavioral issues or family problems that are so extreme, they make education seem irrelevant at times. When students enter Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins' classroom, however, she demands that for those 90 minutes, they let it all go.

Music was an escape for Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins when she was in school. When students step into her classroom and cross that line, every fight they got into, all their letters and numbers — EC, 504 — it goes away.

"We are all the same. You leave all labels outside the door, and we come together for the love of music, to be healed," said Ruffin-Atkins.

Her students are free to express themselves and find comfort in their surroundings. Every day, for 90 minutes, they can sing and dance to forget what is waiting for them when the dismissal bell rings.

Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins also teaches them lessons she hopes will stay with them for the remainder of their lives, like respect. When their teacher speaks, they listen. It's clear that there is only one person in charge of her classroom space. If the GHS choral program is a family, she is undoubtedly the matriarch. Others see it as a ministry of sorts, with Mrs. Ruffin-Atkins working the room and bringing every bit of energy out of those watching her preach. Either way, her influence spills outside of her own classroom into the other classes her students find themselves in during the school day. They take the example she has set for them back home (many, to situations that bring far less hope than they leave her room with). That is her power.

“When I leave here, I want them to remember that you can defy labels," says Ruffin-Atkins. "I remember being in high school and looking up these statistics about people. For my age and for a child who came out of a single-parent home, they had all these things you were supposed to be. I say, ‘No. I’m not any of that.' Since that day, I’ve used that. No, I am not going to be what you say I’m supposed to be. I am more than your labels. That’s what I tell [my students]. You don’t have to be what society says you’re going to be, or what the media says you are. You can be great. I want people to remember that I was over there in the hood, and I made it.” 

"Victoria Ruffin-Atkins is, hands down, one of the best.  She loves her students and is always accessible," said Powell.