The Mycenaean

There’s nothing Leesville loves more than appreciating and recognizing our teachers, but we especially love the ones who have been here since the start. We have a few teachers who attended Leesville as students who now work here.

Paige Van Gorden, a new Holocaust and Genocides teacher at Leesville, said, “Being an alumni helps me connect better with students because I have had many similar experiences in the same place and classrooms. I also have a lot of school spirit, I take a lot of pride in being a Leesville graduate.”

“Having the school spirit, knowing what being a student here felt like, and being a teacher and understanding what it’s like, all make it easier for me to relate to high schoolers. I remember my time here and I understand what it was like,” said Meg Miranda.

Miranda attended Leesville in 1996, just a few short years after the school opened. The Pride students have never changed, but our education styles definitely have.

Van Gorden said, “The biggest change I have noticed since I was a student is that there is much more emphasis on doing fun activities, we did fun things when I was in high school but I had a lot of classes I only took notes in. Now there is a lot of inclusivity for students who learn differently.”

Our teacher alumni loved describing why they came back:

“I love Raleigh and I had a good time in high school so I thought it would be nice to give my students the same great experience I had,” said Van Gorden.

“Attending Leesville has definitely opened up more opportunities I never thought would be possible. I got to come back because I reached out to my old volleyball coach to help her, and she showed me an opportunity to be the new interior design teacher, and I took the job. The connections I had there I never thought I would use years after my graduation,” said Jenna Lyon, our interior design teacher.

“I was inspired to come back because I was teaching at a middle school and a position opened up here. I thought that it made perfect sense to teach here because I already knew about Leesville, and I was excited to try high school. I already knew it was going to be a great place to teach, learn, and spend my time,” Miranda said.

Lyon said, “It is exciting to be here because it brings back memories and there is a lot of pride in being home and it is comfortable.” 

There are lots of reasons for our teachers to love Leesville, but there are some very special things our teachers love about being here.

“Teaching at the school I once attended makes me feel like I come home every single day. I get to build relationships with my previous teachers who are now my coworkers and everything is more comfortable stepping into the teacher role because I am already comfortable in my environment,” said Lyon.

“I think that coming back to Leesville has motivated me to stay a teacher, I am not sure that I would have continued this career if it was not for the fact that I came back to Leesville and found my home here as an educator,” said Miranda.

Teachers are there to guide us and teach us about more than just academic content, they give us life lessons and tips to help us succeed.

“Advice I would give to a current student is soak it all up and enjoy it while you can, there is going to be things in high school that are not fun and it is just all part of life but you are going to look back and realize all the good things that happened,” said Van Gorden.

Miranda said, “If I could give a student advice I wish I had, it would be to enjoy your time in high school, but try as hard as you can because it does matter  — the way you act and perform can change the trajectory of your future so make good decisions.”