Top teacher LaQuita Love, dressed in white, is surrounded by a group of her students.
LaQuita Love – businesswoman, hairstylist and cosmetology teacher at Albany High School’s Abrookin Career and Technical Center – has been named one of the Top 13 Teachers of 2021 by WNYT/Ch. 13.
Love attended Albany’s public schools and graduated from Albany High School in 1994. She earned a cosmetology license in 1997 and in the next six years opened Safari New York Hair Studio and Hair Candy Beauty Supply.
She started teaching in the cosmetology program at Abrookin Career and Technical Center in 2006. She completed her teaching certification at The College of Saint Rose while working full time and also earned a bachelor’s degree at SUNY Empire State College.
In addition to providing students with a foundation of classroom knowledge, Love said she believes it’s crucial to teach students to think for themselves.
“[Teachers should] allow students to form their own voice and teach them the importance of having a voice. The billion-dollar industry that I serve was built on having and operating from different perspectives,” Love recently told The CTE Express.
Love has been the recipient of both teaching and beauty awards during her career. In both 2020 and 2015, she earned the prestigious Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching from the City School District of Albany. She received a 2018 Ujima Journey Kazi (work) Award and a 2012 Woman of Distinction Award by the Black Women’s Association.
Earlier in her career, she earned the #1 Stylist Award at the Pioneers of Beauty Culture Competition and took third place at the International Beauty Show Student Competition at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
