Steven Thedford began his writing career winning a writing contest at Build Academy in Buffalo, N. Y. for a book about an Easter egg in elementary school. Moreover, his talents have always amazed his fellow students. For instance, during the reading of a poem in a high school English class, he began a poem by saying, “I have the taste of the past in my mouth.” But, before he could continue a fellow classmate hollered out, “You didn’t write that.”
With guidance from Dawn Scotland, a professor at Clark College, now Clark Atlanta University, Thedford polished his skills and won third place in the National Essay Contest honoring Dr. Marin Luther King, during his Freshman year in college. Furthermore, he used his abilities during graduate school to write articles for a graduate school newsletter. Moreover, during this time he published his own newsletter, African Expressions, a publication of poems.
After graduate school, Thedford taught math and physics at Mbeji Academy in Ngi’ya Kenya, East Africa, as a fellow of the International Foundation of Education and Self Help. The experience inspired him to enter the teaching field where he has nurtured young minds at Kennedy Middle School in Charlotte, N. C, Redan High School in Stone Mountain, GA, and DeKalb Online Academy in Decatur, GA.
Thedford participated in a summer Teacher’s Intern Program, sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Department of Education, where he conducted research on Celgard Membranes Hoechst Celanese. Also he has worked in the corporate section as well as a civilian for the arm services-Xerox Corporation, the Naval Ocean System Center. Honeywell Corporation, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Centers for Disease Control, Naval Surface Warfare Center in Silver Springs Maryland, the United Parcel Service (UPS), and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
His teaching colleagues have elected him as a finalist for Teacher of the Year at Redan High school on two different occasions and in 2015 he was awarded “Teacher of the Year” for Dekalb Online Academy. Moreover, students have nominated Steven Thedford’s for Who’s Who Among American High School Teachers five different years. In addition, he has been a Tandy Technology School, Scholar, a National Institute of Health Apprentice, selected to participate in the NanoTeach Pilot Program and chosen for CESMIC’s Georgia Industrial Fellowship for Teachers program. Finally, the University of Georgia awarded Thedford the Teacher of Promise Award.
From his experience, Thedford published his first book in 2003, Inquiry Based Science Activities and Internet lesson. New World Press, Inc. published Thedford’s second book in 2004, The Kwanzaa Coloring Book that introduces children to the principles and symbols of the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa. In the spring of 2007 New Press, Inc. released Thedford’s Nobody Told Me It Was Like This, “poetry you can understand.” Furthermore, in the spring of 2016 TeachEngineering, a publication of the University of Colorado at Boulder, published Thedford’s article entitled “Acoustic Mirrors.”
Steven C. Thedford resides in Ellenwood, GA with his daughters (Kennedy Isis Thedford, Landyn Imani Thedford) and spouse-Yolanda Thedford.