On the first day of school, students see an unfamiliar face wandering through the halls of Northwood High School. Most students are wondering, “Who is he?” All questions aside, he is Northwood’s new principal.
Dr. Bradford Walston recently decided to leave his previous principal position at Providence Grove High School in Randolph County and join the community of Northwood High School. As the new principal of Northwood, Dr. Walston is thrilled to be a part of the NHS team and be able to continue learning about the students and make improvements.
“I want to continue to have student choice and student voice,” Dr. Walston says. “It’s all about [the students]; what internships are [they] doing or what clubs are [they] involved in.”
Dr. Walston hopes to improve extracurricular activities at Northwood and be able to get students more involved in them.
“I think that students should do more than just the four core classes,” he says. “If those buses leave empty everyday because people are involved in something after school, then we have reached that apex of the school.”
Despite being a principal, Dr. Walston does not spend all his time in school. He enjoys traveling whenever he gets a chance.
“I love to travel any opportunity I get because as a child I wasn’t given that privilege,” he says. “We couldn’t afford it.”
Dr. Walston believes that everyone should travel, not only for the experience, but because it also opens up their view of the world.
“I like to travel and see the world, because this little bubble that we live in, we don’t understand that there is a big world out there that all have opinions wants and needs.”
Dr. Walston has been to many states in the U.S., such as Chicago and California, but most of his interesting adventures have been outside of the U.S. Walston has been to Ireland, Paris, Shanghai, China and the Great Wall of China at the eastern entrance. His favorite visits were to Ireland and Shanghai.
“[Ireland] was just absolutely beautiful. You can get anywhere in the country in about two hours,” he says. “Then the most fun city was probably Shanghai in China because it was wide open and it has such a vibrant city population. It’s quite a cultural plunge where I have lived in North Carolina all my life and I’m sitting here in China. It’s different not to be the norm, to see how differently people look at you and treat you [in China].”
If Walston could travel to any place he wanted to, he says he would travel to Florence, Italy, because he is fascinated with the culture that lies within that country, specifically during the Renaissance Era.
“I am just so interested in the Renaissance Era and love the history behind it, so I think visiting that place would be exciting,” he says.
Aside from traveling in his free time, Dr. Walston used to be into carving decoys.
“I would carve wooden ducks and then I got into administration and haven’t have time for that,” he says. “I carved one for my brother and I have one sitting at home that I haven’t finished; I should probably get back into that.”
Administration has always been a dream of Walston’s and he is exactly where he wants to be right now.
“I‘ve always loved working with students,” Walston says. “I love teaching and coaching, and that kind of morphed into administration, and I got here a lot faster than I thought I was going to be, but I am happy that I’m here.”
– By Emma Quasny
