The one and only Mr. Marvin Fuqua was born and raised in Danville. He has two siblings and is the middle child. When it comes to holidays, Fuqua’s favorite holiday is Christmas, and his favorite thing about Christmas is “the time I get to spend with my family,” Fuqua said. Fuqua has traveled out of the country to Israel and Egypt. He mentions his favorite food is country style steak from Mary’s Diner “with extra gravy.” Fuqua has hobbies outside of school, including caving and white water rafting.
Fuqua attended George Washington high school, and he was in JROTC. He chose Virginia Tech for his college educational degree. Even though he teaches mathematics, his favorite subject growing up was science. “You can’t do science without math,” Fuqua said. Fuqua is going on his 14th year of teaching trigonometry and physics at THS. “Growing up I never really thought about being a math teacher, until in high school, my physics teacher had a little office in the back of the room. I used to think about what a great life is just having to go out and teach for a few hours a day and you can go sit back and drink coffee, that would be a great way to make a living,” Fuqua said.
Even though Fuqua loves teaching, he does have one main con which is his biggest pet peeve. “All teachers have the same pet peeve which is that there is so much paperwork involved, and you can’t spend a lot of time with the students,” Fuqua said. Fuqua loves helping his students, his favorite thing about teaching is when a student has been struggling and finally understands. “If I could turn back time I would absolutely still choose to be a teacher,” Fuqua said.
Fuqua describes himself as a much better teacher now then when he started teaching because it took time for him to get organized. “After time you realize how to do things, and you commit yourself,” Fuqua said. Fuqua is grateful for the opportunity people gave him when he first started. “Advice to upcoming and new teachers would be to ask for help when needed,” Fuqua said. His main goal in teaching is to help students succeed in their future.
