Class of 2026: VCU teacher residency program helps Heidi Dixon fulfill a dream

By Brian McNeill

Heidi Dixon felt an early calling to teach special education students.

“As a middle school student many years ago, we never saw special ed students,” she said. “Then one day, I was walking past a classroom and I looked in and saw the class of students with special needs. I was like, ‘I want to be that teacher.’”

Dixon attended college with the intent of becoming a special education teacher, but as a member of a military family, she had to move before fulfilling the student teaching requirements. Instead, she worked as an instructional assistant in many schools over the years.

Dixon had just started in that role in Prince William County Public Schools in Northern Virginia when she heard that the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education‘s teacher residency apprenticeship program, RTR Teacher Residency, was launching in Prince William. It was the perfect opportunity to fulfill her dream.

The school-based teacher preparation program integrates research and practice to equip residents with the knowledge, skills and experience to be effective in high-need and hard-to-staff classrooms. It covers the cost of the student’s degree in exchange for their commitment to teach in a high-need school for three years after graduation.

“RTR allowed me to work and paid for my schooling. It was a way for me to go and finish what I started 20 years ago,” Dixon said. “RTR made it accessible, because otherwise it would not have been accessible financially.”

Dixon graduates this spring from VCU with a bachelor’s degree in special education and teaching. As an RTR resident, she is currently teaching Tier 1 special education, primarily students with dyslexia-specific learning disabilities, at Glenkirk Elementary School in Prince William.

In addition to teaching full-time at Glenkirk and attending VCU classes remotely, Dixon co-owns and operates with her husband the Ever After Alpaca Farm. The farm was featured last year on the TLC reality show “Baylen Out Loud,” which follows a young woman with Tourette syndrome.

“We do tours. We make products. We have a great time,” Dixon said, adding that it’s been a challenge to juggle the demands of teaching, completing 15 to 18 credit hours of classes per semester and running the farm. “I literally don’t know what I’m going to do with all of my free time after graduation, because I have had none for two-and-a-half years.”

At VCU, Dixon was selected for the Ruth Harris Scholars Program, a collaboration between the Virginia Department of Education, the Training and Technical Assistance Center at VCU and the School of Education dean’s office. It provides scholars, all of whom are VCU teacher education students in special education, elementary or secondary education, with no-cost professional development opportunities.

As a 2024-25 scholar, Dixon received specialized Department of Education training in Orton-Gillingham, a multisensory approach to teaching reading that is considered the gold standard in literacy instruction. Also as a scholar, Dixon participated in training and volunteered at the School of Education’s annual Dyslexia Symposium, which spotlights research and resources to support students with the condition.

Dixon said being a Ruth Harris Scholar “has been the best thing that’s happened to me at VCU. It gave me the entire foundation for my educational philosophy and gave me [an understanding of] that multisensory approach to teaching. It’s really been the best part of VCU for me.”

This year, Dixon is also serving as the Ruth Harris student worker, providing administrative support, data input and analysis, and other tasks in support of the School of Education’s work focused on students with dyslexia and language learning disabilities.

“She has a strong work ethic and sought professional development opportunities so she could meet the academic needs of her students,” said Lisa Cipolletti, Ed.D., Dixon’s mentor in the Ruth Harris Scholars Program and an associate professor of teaching and learning. “She has been an integral part of our planning team. Heidi is dedicated, professional and well-equipped as a special educator.”