Editor’s Note: “Hawks Uncovered” is a series that tells the often unknown stories of Hebron students and staff.

Her first day at Louisiana State University, she had already made up her mind: teaching was not for her. 

When she saw the payroll for first-year teachers in Louisiana during that first class — a mere $14,300 —  — she knew she had to find another passion. She switched her major from education to business marketing and administration. Twenty years later, business marketing teacher Sherry Gowarty came back to her true calling: teaching. 

Graduating from college and getting her Master’s in business marketing and administration in 1994, Gowarty started to look for jobs. Every Sunday, she would go to her local newspaper stand and look through the Dallas, Atlanta and Houston news for job openings. She would mail stacks and stacks of her resumes out all over the country in hopes of getting an offer. Receiving a job offer in Dallas, Gowarty packed everything she had from New Orleans and drove to her new home. She worked for Rexel, an electrical distribution company, in their customer satisfaction and process improvements department. 

After 10 years in the marketing world and another decade as a stay-at-home mom, Gowarty felt she needed a change. An internship opened at a local school in Maryland, where she had moved, for a coordinator position.

Her educational journey began. 

Dallas brought Gowarty back once again, this time with a job offer to teach at Hebron — just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Her first year as a teacher in career and technical education being partially virtual made her realize the love she had for preparing students for the real world. As she became the DECA sponsor and led Hebron to its first top-10 placement of an individual at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC), Gowarty felt that, now more than ever, her students were an extension of her family. 

In the December of her third year of teaching, Gowarty realized that her two kids were starting to get older. With her daughter going into her senior year at Hebron and her son preparing for graduation from Texas A&M next year, Gowarty was led to a new decision: she would travel with her family around the world. Even though she said her love of Hebron will always have a place in her heart, Gowarty has decided to retire at the end of this school year.

As a teacher, she learned how to think on her feet and be flexible, as she never knew what a new day would bring her. Gowarty doesn’t know whether this will be the end of her teaching career, but she hopes to sub at Hebron while she sees which path life takes her next. All Gowarty knows right now is that she was able to experience teaching at this school, and can’t wait for the many other possible opportunities that come her way.