New Malcolm principal ready to guide her pupils’ growth

Pugh appointed to school’s top spot

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Wilhelmina Pugh is the new principal at Malcolm Elementary School. ‘‘With elementary school children, you can see their growth. You are able to nurture them as they grow, and have an impact on their progress,” she said. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

‘‘You need to tell a child that whatever choices they make in the beginning,” Pugh said, ‘‘these are the choices which will influence how the ending is going to turn out.”

Pugh was appointed principal of Malcolm on June 23 after 28 years of experience in the Charles County school system. Her last position was as vice principal of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer Elementary School.

Pugh graduated from Bowling Green State University with a major in speech and theater education and a minor in speech pathology.

After her graduation, she had several job offers, but came to Charles County because it was closest to her hometown of Ahoskie, N.C.

‘‘I come from a family of educators,” Pugh said. ‘‘My aunts were all teachers, and my grandmother made all the boys work, so the girls could go to college. My father graduated top in his class, and his nickname was ‘Book,’ but my grandmother felt that an education and a profession were more important for her daughters than her sons.”

Pugh remembers as a young girl, she used to go to school with her aunts during her summer vacation.

‘‘I used to make the bulletin boards,” Pugh said. ‘‘I remember cutting up all the stuff for the boards during my summer vacation.”

Both her brother and sister-in-law are principals, and her sister has been a fourth-grade teacher for 30 years.

Pugh started her career as a speech language pathologist in 1980.

‘‘I was fortunate enough to work at about 10 different schools in the Charles County school system,” Pugh said, ‘‘so I have a good feel for all the different types of communities that are in the county. I also think that being a speech pathologist was a wonderful experience, because it enabled me to work with students one-to-one.”

Pugh has always felt the importance of having a personal relationship with every one of her students.

‘‘I ran into one of my old students, years after teaching him, at a fast-food restaurant,” Pugh said.

‘‘He remembered a trip that we had taken after school to the zoo,” Pugh said.

‘‘He thanked me so much for taking him. He told me that before he met me, he didn’t know how to speak, but now he was doing public speaking and giving presentations.”

‘‘It made me feel good that my personal interest paid off,” Pugh said.

Deidra Fuller, secretary at Daniel of St. Thomas Jennifer Elementary School, has worked with Pugh during the last year.

‘‘I love her,” Fuller said.

‘‘I especially admired the way that she would deal with the parents and the community. It was like she had known them a long time. She had a great rapport with parents and students alike.”

Pugh also likes the challenge that teaching elementary school pupils presents.

‘‘With elementary school children, you can see their growth,” Pugh said. ‘‘You are able to nurture them as they grow, and have an impact on their progress.”

‘‘The parents are trusting us with their babies,” Pugh said.

‘‘We want to show the parents that we are taking care of them. We are entrusted with their care for a large part of the child’s day.”

Pugh also encourages her pupils not only to work hard, but to follow their dreams.

‘‘I believe you need to show up every day, work hard and give 100 percent,” Pugh said of her message to her students. ‘‘But I also tell my students there is nothing wrong with dreaming. I just tell them you need to think about what kind of road map you need to have your dreams come true.”

In her spare time, Pugh likes to read, and she enjoys singing.

‘‘I have always been a back-up singer,” Pugh said. ‘‘I guess now is the time to get out in front.”