They spent their high school years in the same building you did. Some had the teachers you had, maybe even sat in the same desk you sat in. Past students of the school have gone on to other things, but a handful decided to come back.

Kallie Essary graduated in 2010, Kathryn Gaughan in 2006 and Leah Bouas in 2003. They saw the school change and grow and saw the school spirit strengthen throughout the years. They’ve returned seeing that the atmosphere has remained positive and were glad to see how the school turned out years after they graduated.

After Essary graduated, she went to Midwestern State University, played soccer and got her degree in teaching. Essary was on the soccer team here and now coaches the sport, as well as teaching algebra to freshmen. She was also a part of Student Council her junior and senior years.

“I was an athlete,” Essary said. “I was friends with most of the soccer people. I enjoyed it here. I played soccer here so I thought it’d be fun to coach soccer. I coach with the coach that coached me.”

There have been a few changes to the school since Essary was a student here.

“This 9th grade center didn’t even exist,” Essary said. “There was no block lunch so I’m a little jealous of that.”  

This is Essary’s second year of teaching and she has not considered any other career choice.

“I always wanted to be a teacher,” Essary said. “(It) was always a dream of mine to come back to Hebron. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.”

Essary isn’t the only teacher to return to Hebron. Gaughan has been teaching at the 9th grade campus as a Pre-AP English teacher for four years since she graduated early in 2006. Her sister was even the school mascot her freshman year at the school.

“During pep rallies she would pull me out and we would … dance on the floor, so it was a lot of fun just being there with my sister,” Gaughan said.

After graduating, Gaughan went on to get her bachelor’s degree at UT Dallas, and is currently working on her masters at SMU. Gaughan said she knew teaching was for her since elementary school, but it wasn’t her exact intention to return to the school.

“I did not think at all that I would be back here,” Gaughan said. “But I graduated college in 2009 in December and finding a teaching job was really difficult.”

Gaughan went on to explain how the “economy sucked” leading to less jobs. Lucky for her she had a connection with the 9th grade campus’ principal Mark Dalton.

“He was the vice principal when I was at Hebron,” Gaughan said. “Because I knew Mr.Dalton … I found out Hebron was hiring.”

Teaching in the 9th grade center has made the job a little bit easier for Gaughan.

“It’s kind of nice to teach over here not having been to school here,” Gaughan said. “When I walk over to the main campus, it’s very much like high school memories all over again.”

Bouas attended Hebron the year it opened, in 1999, as a freshman.

“In my ninth grade year they were still doing construction,” Bouas explained. “So you’d be in math trying to concentrate and take a test and there’d be like drills and hammers in the background.”

She now teaches AP World History alongside Jeremy Millhouse who taught her in 2000.

“I thought it was going to be really awkward working with people who used to be my teachers,” Bouas said. “But they’ve accepted me as a peer.”

Her class of 500, the first one of the school,started the tradition of “Ruckus and Rowdy.”

“It was cool to know that the school had a big future and we were kind of helping set the course of that future,” Bouas said.

After graduating, Bouas went to Texas A&M University to study meteorology, but changed her career route when she realized how much math was involved. She then remembered how much she had enjoyed history when she was in school, and proceeded to change her major to that instead. Later, she taught in San Antonio and even Boston for some time.

“After seeing all those other places I realized how great Hebron is,” Bouas said. “People are just really nice here. There’s kind of a united vibe.”

Although the atmosphere stayed the same, the appearance has changed quite a bit over the past 16 years.

“It’s a lot bigger,” Bouas said. “The student body is a lot bigger, but more things, I would say, have stayed the same.”

As far as coming back to the school to teach, Bouas didn’t have a hard time finding the job.

“Mr. Millhouse actually is the one who let me know there was a job opening, so that was pretty cool,” Bouas said.

Overall, the teachers who were once students have a generally positive view of their time in the school.

“I did debate my last few years,” Bouas said. “I was in a lot of AP classes, I was on the senior board my senior year so I participated in the homecoming parade. I really enjoyed being a student here. It was a nice place to grow up and go to school.”