Alicia Robinson-Spillman is known as Ms. Spillman to the students of Whitney Young High School. She teaches English I and AP Composition grading with her signature green pen.

I know her best as the teacher of the senior Division 941, my division in room 216. The first day we met her, she told us she was Beyonce, and we believed her because of her great fashion sense. The Whitney Young Beacon featured her for the fashion spotlight three years ago. She treasures our birthdays and celebrates our existence with allowing us to choose a huge candy bar (Hersheys, Twix, Skittles, Starburst, etc) from her candy basket. She also wrote all our birthdays on cake-shaped decorations and hung them up on a bulletin board.

Ms. Spillman inspires us to find our passions. When there were opportunities to meet different people of different careers she highly encouraged us to go. She also talked about her own experience of starting out as a lawyer but realizing it wasn’t for her and became a high school teacher instead. Her shift in her career choice has lessened my fear in heading into the unknown of college and of choosing a career. Even though she switched, she is still living a happy life and loves what she does, which is exactly what I want.

Ms. Spill brings smiles to our faces when we enter division. Fiona Chen ‘19 expressed, “I love that she is always happy to see us. It cheers me up and makes my day a little better.” Ms. Spillman, our whole division will miss you and we hope that we will forever be your favorite division!