A career educator, Megan Atkinson is in her 22nd year of working in public education and serves as the career and technical education (CTE) and business partnerships administrator for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). She started her career as a health and physical education teacher in King & Queen County, Virginia, and later taught in Falls Church City, Virginia. She moved to the New River Valley in 2012, where she stepped into the role of assistant principal for MCPS. She has worked as a CTE lead for more than half of her career.

Atkinson grew up outside of Richmond and came to Virginia Tech as an undergraduate. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in health and physical education, a Master’s degree in health promotion, and an Education Specialist degree in School Leadership and Policy Studies from Virginia Tech. 

Great Opportunities in Technology and Engineering Careers (GO TEC®), an initiative with more than 11,000 participating students across 73 Virginia middle schools, uses a hub-and-spoke model to develop a talent pipeline across the Commonwealth of Virginia for sectors such as precision machining, welding, IT coding and networking, automation and robotics, and more. Middle schoolers are introduced early to the occupations through GO TEC Career Connections Labs. In high school, they are connected to expanded career and technical courses, industry certification programs, and dual-enrollment training opportunities. Atkinson’s GO Virginia Region 2 project will expand the GO TEC initiative into six school districts in Region 2, located in Montgomery County, City of Radford, Giles County, Pulaski County, and Roanoke County.

1. What made you interested in a career in education?

Growing up, I didn’t have an interest in education, but as I started looking at different career paths, I decided that an education degree would allow me to travel the country or even work internationally. As I got into the coursework, I realized I genuinely liked working with students and helping them imagine themselves in their adult lives, whether through supporting their health and wellness or assisting them in career path exploration.

2. What do you like most about your role as CTE and business partnerships administrator at Montgomery County Public Schools?

I love that I get to be the bridge between education and industry. In many cases, these two worlds operate in silos. I want to make sure we’re preparing our K-12 students for their career paths, so that when they walk across the stage at graduation, they have a plan. I collaborate with local industry, showing them how we’re preparing students for their future careers. Through these conversations, I’m able to learn what industry sees as a need.  From there, we can look at how to infuse that need into the educational programs we’re providing.

3. For those who have not heard of the Great Opportunities in Technology and Engineering Careers (GO TEC) program, could you provide a brief overview and what inspired you to expand the program to Region 2?

When I heard about GO TEC, they were just starting to expand into GO Virginia Region 1. GO TEC was developed to form a strong partnership between education and industry. Manufacturers need skilled employees for their workforce, and education needs tools to explain manufacturing to middle school students. Because of this program, we don’t have to rely on a student having a family member who works in manufacturing to provide them with career awareness. Through GO TEC, we bring exploratory experiences to the classroom.

4. What do you hope the impact of the project will be in Region 2?

I’m hoping this is just the beginning. The students who participate in GO TEC at Christiansburg Middle School will leave the experience with a better understanding of different career options across multiple career clusters. One of the goals of the program is to help students make informed decisions when they get to high school. If they really enjoyed the welding unit through GO TEC, they can take welding classes in high school and start earning credentials for after graduation.

5. In your experience with the GO Virginia program so far, what do you like most about being a grantee?

Preparing to write a grant for almost a million dollars was a new experience for me. I’m very fortunate to have the support of Dr. Matt Dunleavy, the MCPS Director of Grants, Innovation, and Partnerships. His work allowed me to take the GO TEC idea to reality. I also appreciate the Region 2 staff, board, and executive committee. Their feedback and insight were instrumental in helping us prepare a successful grant.

6. What is the last book you read that you would recommend?

The last book that I read was How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Don Clifton. I’m a big CliftonStrengths fan and a Gallup-Certified strength coach, and I like thinking about leadership from that mindset. This book talks about your capacity in your personal and work life. Bucket fillers are people in your life who are adding to your capacity to perform, and bucket dippers are people who are taking away from your capacity. I like that metaphor and thinking about the different challenges in my professional and personal life. One, it keeps me grounded and helps me perform to the best of my ability each day. Two, it helps me make sure that I am giving in my relationships with other school divisions. During the grant writing process, I called on local CTE directors to develop a plan for how the GO TEC project would work in their school division. But I hope that I am being a bucket filler by writing the grant and setting up our local processes, allowing these school divisions to receive resources they wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise. I appreciated the give-and-take mentality in the book.

7. What hobbies and activities do you like to do in your spare time?

I like spending time with my husband Mike, my two stepdaughters Lillian and Isabella, and our Australian Cattle Dog, Mango. I volunteer as an advisor to Chi Omega at Virginia Tech, my sorority. I’m on the leadership team for an organization called the 100+ Women Who Care of the New River Valley, a philanthropic group that meets quarterly and uses our finances to lift up local nonprofits. Beyond that, I enjoy spending time outside; I am an amateur gardener and like to grow flowers.