If someone had told the high school-aged Brenda Anderson-Diggs that she would be an educator when she grew up, she wouldn’t have believed them.
“I loved learning, but school was never really my thing,” she says. But, coming from a long line of educators in her family, Mrs. Diggs believes that her path to education was ordained.
And now, she serves as the chair of the Information Systems Technology Department and teaches cybersecurity courses at Germanna.
Mrs. Diggs’ journey to becoming an educator was not linear—and neither was her educational journey. As a child in a military family, Mrs. Diggs spent the majority of her childhood bouncing from place to place.
“The first school I ever attended was a Parisian school in France, so French was my first language. We then moved to Germany, so I had to readapt to a new culture and language. By the time my family got back state-side, I was a mess phonetically,” says Mrs. Diggs.
Since English was her third language, Mrs. Diggs developed a reading problem. “I had to put in work to overcome my reading and spelling deficiencies, but I noticed that even though I was lacking in that area, I was great in math.”
Once she got to high school, Mrs. Diggs began excelling in all areas, graduating with her diploma a year early. She decided to further her education and started taking classes at Northern Virginia Community College. But her interest in school started to dwindle.
“I was taking classes, but I wasn’t really into it,” says Mrs. Diggs. She was more interested in starting an independent life where she could work and provide for herself. So, she stopped taking classes and moved to New Jersey.
“After being in New Jersey for a while, I decided to go back to school, so I enrolled in Camden County Community College and took a few classes at Rowan University.” But after a year, she found herself uninterested in school again.
It wasn’t until the birth of her daughter that she was moved to finally pursue her bachelor’s degree. “When I had my daughter, I realized it wasn’t just about me anymore—it was about the both of us," she says.
After receiving financial aid from the University of Mary Washington, Mrs. Diggs enrolled in classes and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in accounting. “And I did it with my baby,” says Mrs. Diggs, as she recalls bringing her 10-month-old daughter to class with her.
Years later, Mrs. Diggs went back to school to get her master’s degree, and she did it with her daughter again. Only this time, her daughter was getting her master’s degree, too. They went to the University of Maryland Global Campus together and graduated with their master’s degrees during the pandemic.
Before becoming an educator, Mrs. Diggs managed networks for the federal government for 25 years, serving in a multitude of roles. She decided to leave the federal government when her mother fell ill.
“I chose that moment to take a step back and turn my attention to my family. And shortly after making that decision, I got a call from Essex High School asking if I could fill a position as a computer teacher,” says Mrs. Diggs.
She accepted the role and ended up staying at the school for ten years, teaching computer classes and leading the dual enrollment cybersecurity program for Essex High School.
“I decided to leave the high school because I was running for office at the school board, and I didn’t want that to be a conflict of interest,” says Mrs. Diggs.
On her job search, she came across an open position at Germanna that caught her eye.
And almost a full year later, Mrs. Diggs is doing just that, teaching students the ins and outs of cybersecurity.
With her vast knowledge and experience in the cybersecurity industry, Mrs. Diggs teaches her classes based on the skills she used working for the federal government. “Because of my background, I’m able to teach my students from my real-life experiences,” she says.
And though education was never an industry she imagined herself in, Mrs. Diggs has enjoyed the change and appreciates being able to make instant impacts on her students’ lives.
“Most people in the cybersecurity industry don’t use their expertise to go into teaching. But for me, the change has been rewarding,” she says.
With her educational ancestry going back to the 1800s, Mrs. Diggs believes her fate as an educator was predestined.