Prime Highlights
- A VCU School of Education reunion to remember: former student Krystal Andrews and her high school guidance counselor Dr. Paul Harris are now colleagues.
- Their experience illustrates the positive, long-term effect of mentorship on education.
Key Facts
- Dr. Paul Harris mentored Krystal Andrews as a Warwick High School student more than 20 years ago.
- In 2025, they joined forces once more at VCU’s School of Education as leaders and professors.
Key Background
“Full circle moments” are few and far between in the academic world, but that’s what just happened at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education. The Department of Counseling and Special Education greeted new associate professor Dr. Paul C. Harris in January 2025—only to discover he’d be sharing the workspace with a returning name from his past: Krystal Andrews, his former high school student many years ago.
Earlier in the early 2000s, Harris had worked as a high school counselor at Newport News’ Warwick High School. Though a one-year tenure, it left a mark. Among those he directly mentored was Andrews, who was then a studious member of Warwick’s International Baccalaureate program. Harris was a guide to her in school and life choices—seeding confidence and ambition that would see her through coursework.
Andrews credits the sense of belongingness to the Warwick counseling staff, specifically Harris. She had considered school counseling herself initially, motivated by their concern, but ended up working towards student support in higher education. She has served as Director of Student Success at VCU’s School of Education since 2021—where she now works alongside her former mentor. Following graduation from James Madison University.
The emotional reunion was among the biggest moments during VCU’s 2025 graduation. Harris posted a heartwarming Facebook status, grinning from ear to ear as he admired his former students flourish professionally. Dr. Isaiah Moore, incidentally one of Harris’s former mentees and a continuing doctoral graduate at VCU, was in the picture.
This poignant reconnection is not an emotional one. It is a genuine testament to the wide range of the impact of Harris’s career as a mentor. From mentoring students through high school difficulties to mentoring scholars in leadership positions, Harris’s career is a testament to developing talent at all levels. And now, with Andrews now by his side as his co-guiding partner, the next chapter awaits to be written—this time with the two of them at the helm of the next generation of teachers.
