Although Mr. Scott McGraw has taught at Cape Henry Collegiate for many years, he did not always think he was going to end up teaching at the school. Now, Mr. McGraw is the teacher for Psychology and AP Government at CHC.
Mr. McGraw moved from Virginia Beach to Washington D.C. in 1998 when he married his wife. He then moved back in 2005 because of his wife’s job, and so that they could be near her family.
“We didn’t have any family up in DC, so [when we moved back to Virginia Beach] we had family to help us with the kids, with babysitting and while we were working,” Mr. McGraw said.
Mr. McGraw grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and majored in history at Emory University. He then decided to move to Virginia Beach since he wanted to go to University of Virginia for law school. Mr. McGraw did not major in political science, but he has always been interested in the subjects of law and government. He later realized that he wanted to switch careers from law to teaching, and then decided to teach government instead of history.
“I started teaching it, and it fit well with not only my interests, but also my background as a lawyer,” Mr. McGraw said.
Mr. McGraw began his teaching career by working at Kempsville High School as a psychology teacher. Even though he did not have a much background in psychology, he was interested in teaching the subject since it would be a change from a government class, which he had been teaching for a few years.
“I also liked that it was not an AP class, because all the other government classes I taught were all AP,” he said. “I liked at least having one class where there’s not the AP pressure that you have to get through all this and get everybody ready for the test. We can just kind of relax and learn some things.”
Mr. McGraw was working at Kempsville High School when the head of the Upper School of Cape Henry asked him to interview, which resulted in a job offer. He came to Cape Henry in 2008 with expectations of seeking more opportunities, and he agreed that there have been many instances in which he has been grateful for everything that this school has to offer, such as the ability to travel to other countries.
“I thought that there was a lot more opportunity here to do some different things than I was doing there, and that has been true,” Mr. McGraw said.
Mr. McGraw has attended roughly ten Nexus trips since he has worked at Cape Henry. Some of the places that he has traveled to include Cuba, Namibia, Nepal, England, the Galapagos, and Laos. He traveled to Asia, and his favorite trips were Nepal and Laos because he loved how different the two places were when compared to America. Mr. McGraw explained that one purpose for attending the trip to Laos was to help put wires in a village school so that the students could have electricity. That was the furthest he has been off of the grid, and he enjoyed getting to be around the people who were a part of the village.
Mr. McGraw’s second favorite trip that he took was to Nepal, and he did many different activities there. He went to many Buddhist temples, he traveled to Tibet, and he went to the base of Mt. Everest. Overall, Mr. McGraw has become very involved with the Nexus program, and looks forward to attending another trip this upcoming summer.
“Being in that one place for a week and a half or two weeks, you get to understand their rhythm of life and how they do things differently,” Mr. McGraw said.
Even though students look up to Mr. McGraw, he also has a role model of his own. He has always admired the qualities of the man who was the minister of his church. The minister had served there for around forty years, and many people appreciated the way that he treated them. He impacted Mr. McGraw’s life because he was well respected by all types of people, he was calm, and he was kind.
“I just thought that he was a great guy, he just kept everything in perspective, and he was very relaxed,” Mr. McGraw said.
Mr. McGraw has plans set in place for the future to continue to travel on trips organized through Nexus, but also with his wife. He hopes to carry on everything that he is doing right now, and that he will continue to be successful while he is doing it.
“Hopefully I just keep being good at what I do, whether it’s teaching, or being a dad, or a husband, or whatever my role is,” Mr. McGraw said.
