With it being only his second year at Charter, Dr. Viau has been able to create new connections within his community while also teaching a subject he holds close to his heart: psychology. Although he has grown to build a sphere of influence here at PPCHS, Dr. Viau has taken his career one step beyond the walls of Charter as he has been selected as a member of the American Psychological Association (APA).
“What got me into [psychology] was [being able to learn and figure out] what was going on in people’s minds when they learned language,” he states. However, before being involved in psychology, Dr. Viau was also an English and French teacher, and it wasn’t until grad school that he learned about the subject. The more he taught the course, the more he realized that “it is a dynamic and awesome field that touches on everything.”
This past October, Dr. Viau decided to take his psychology studies to the next level and applied to the American Psychological Association. To his surprise, he was elected as one of the four members of the TOPSS Committee.
This year, in addition to doing APA, Dr. Viau is teaching three Advanced Placement (AP) and two honors psychology classes ranging from 10th to 12th graders. He also taught at the college level in the beginning of his career–for instance, psychology of language at the University of Delaware–and has guest lectured at other institutions. Then eleven years ago, Dr. Viau reveals that, “I switched from doing research and teaching at the college level part-time to high school full-time.”
When Dr. Viau started looking for a new high school to teach at, he was fortunate enough to receive a position in the Charter system. Coincidentally, his son Kai Viau, who is a junior at PPCHS, and his English teacher Mrs. Altimore were the ones who recruited him and encouraged him to come teach at Charter. In the end, it all worked in Dr. Viau’s favor since he didn’t mind being in the school, his kids were already in the system, and there was an opening in psychology since the previous teacher had left mid-year.
As for his education, Dr. Viau has attended a variety of colleges and he considers himself “a career student, [who was] curious and maybe unfocused [with what I wanted to study].” Essentially, he went to Florida State University (FSU) for an undergrad, and he majored in English with a focus in creative writing and comparative religion.
Then attending the University of Florida (UF) where he did Journalism grad school while also teaching French. After some time, “teaching French made me interested in language learning, so I transferred to Indiana University at Bloomington and I got a master’s in French linguistics,” he explained. Furthermore, he did his PhD at Northwestern and lastly, he did a postdoc at Johns Hopkins where he did research and taught as well.
The more he started to enjoy this subject, Dr. Viau realized that when he was doing research, “my training was straddling the fence between linguistics and psychology.” Over time, he decided it would be best to first focus on language acquisition and how people learn the structure of the English language.
Dr. Viau knew about APA but didn’t join until last year when he learned about the AP psychology class and the curriculum. It was after a summer training that the question “How can I take this to the next level?” raised in his mind and influenced his decision to join the organization.
When applying for the position back in August, he submitted a personal statement along with some other materials. However, the biggest part of the process was the election that would ultimately decide who would be the selected candidate. “I couldn’t send the ballot out to students and family because the only people voting were supposed to be psychology teachers who are part of a branch of APA that deals with high school psychology education,” explained Dr. Viau.
Voting happened throughout September and October, and it wasn’t until the third week of October that he received the exciting news that he won a seat in the TOPPS committee. There are four people in total selected and he would now officially be one of the four starting in January and serving a three-year long term until the end of 2027.
“I don’t think anyone expected me to win, myself included,” he chuckles. “But you have to take risks to get rewards, you know. I have a little thing on my board that says, ‘Never settle for good enough,’ so that’s kind of a personal motto. It’s easy to coast, it’s easy to settle, it’s hard enough just to be a teacher. But I felt like I might as well try, and it worked out!”
This new job will all be done virtually except for a yearly personal meeting where he will be flown out to Washington D.C. As a selected candidate, Dr. Viau will have the opportunity to have a reach and influence in psychology at the high school level in the U.S. while also being able to provide teachers with resources he can assist in developing. “I think students will resonate with that a little bit and I think I can do some good. I have opinions on the curriculum since I teach it and this will give me a chance to have some say about that,” he expresses.
Although this job opens many additional opportunities, Dr. Viau describes this as a side gig that will not interfere with his teaching. He wants to ensure he isn’t overworked and has time to put his all into each of the classes and have the time he needs to dedicate to his students. After this three-year term is over, Dr. Viau has the opportunity of running again even for different positions which he finds enticing and a possibility for the future. For now, however, he is excited about this new experience and wants to see how it goes before deciding to continue.
Junior Kai Viau shares his reaction to his father’s achievement, “Once my dad explained to me how significant this position was, I became very excited for him because I know how much he loves English. My dad is the best possible person for this job because of his experience and the pleasure he takes out of it, so I am happy for his achievement.”
Even here at his workplace, Dr. Viau shares that he has a sphere of influence as he has the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers such as Ms. Palacio, who is the other psychology teacher. They have built their own professional learning community where they meet and talk about psychology.
Now by becoming part of APA, he can extend his reach in this realm at the national level which he says is a “notion of service that is important to me too. It’s not just about putting something on my resume, although this might open some opportunities for me broadly down the line, but it’s more about how I can be useful. I’ve always wanted to be useful, so this helps with that.”
As a professional who has delved deep into his education, he shares one piece of advice he would offer to every high school student: be curious. “I think there’s a tendency to get bored and burnt out. You’re over everything, especially when you’re a senior, but the closer you look at the world, the more interesting things are, you know. Don’t lose that curiosity.”
As Dr. Viau takes his career to the national level over these next three years, he remains enthusiastic about the opportunities he will have to give students a voice in this field and assist psychology teachers in this research-based science. With his continuous passion and desire to conduct more research and work alongside other professionals in this prestigious organization, Dr. Viau will remember to stay curious and give it his all at the American Psychological Association.
