ACE Center at Virginia Randolph

A huge thank you and shout out to Katrina Travers Pascal with Luv My Hair Salon! Thank you for awarding Valeria Pena Meza with a scholarship to further her career in the Cosmetology field. Your support truly makes a difference!

Virginia Estelle Randolph was an educator, pioneer, community leader, and social activist whose influence as a teacher went beyond her Henrico County, Virginia classroom.

Among many of her accomplishments. Miss Randolph led a program funded to upgrade vocational training. She opened a one-room schoolhouse, called The Mountain Road School. She restored the building and traveled throughout the county to recruit students. As a teacher there, she taught her students woodworking, sewing, and gardening, as well as academics. Her belief was that manual arts allowed students to have opportunities for employment if they were unable to acquire secondary education.

Virginia Randolph's former office was the Virginia Randolph Home Economics Cottage, at 2200 Mountain Road in Glen Allen. It is a National Historic Landmark, and it opened in 1970 as a museum to Randolph’s life and legacy. Her body was re-buriedl there. The property is today the home of the Academy at Virginia Randolph, Virginia Randolph Education Center, and Advanced Career Technical Center at Virginia Randolph.

Thank you to Mr. Frank Thorton, curator at Virginia Randolph Museum for sharing the life and legacy of Miss Randolph with our students.