Kindergarten Teacher Inspired to Return to Her Native Camden

This is the fourth in a series of profiles of Camden students turned educators.  This series is sponsored by the Camden Education Fund.

CAMDEN, NJ — Meet Nakia James-Scott, a kindergarten teacher at Yorkship Elementary School, whose public school career began in 1998 as an instructional assistant. 

Nakia, 45, grew up in Camden’s Centerville section. Today, she and her husband Tyrone Scott live in Deptford and are proud parents of a daughter, Nazjé, 25, and two sons, Nadir, 20, and Nigel, 12.

Q: What inspired you most to become a teacher?
A: A plethora of things brought me to teaching. As the eldest child in my family, I enjoy playing school with my siblings and cousins. I was nicknamed “Bossy” because I always had to be in charge or play the teacher. During my middle school years, I moved onto a street that allowed me to foster relationships with other young women who were studying for careers in education.  Their dedication to become educators inspired me. One by one, they landed teaching jobs and I felt the desire to follow their career path. 

My most sentimental inspiration — and I am not sure if she knows how meaningful she was to me — was my 8th-grade homeroom and literacy teacher, Mrs. Vivian Webb-Standback. She made it her priority to teach my class and me the fundamentals of writing and literacy.

She made me feel extra special which gave me the incentive to do my best in her class. I recall one particular writing assignment on which I received an A++. She asked to share my paper with other teachers in the school. This was a great feeling, an emotion that I live with to the present day.