Erath High senior wants to be a teacher after college

Some have been discouraged to go into a career of elementary education, but Erath High School senior Hannah Trahan, 18, said she still finds it to be important, despite what others have been saying.
“Some say ‘Oh, you’re going to hate it,’” said Trahan, “but in my mind, there has to be people that go into it that still care about it. I think it’s important because that’s when you teach a student not only information, but you start forming them into the person they need to be.”
She is the second daughter of Mike and Tanya Trahan, with one older sister named Katie and a younger one named Gracie.
One of the reasons she wants to go into the elementary teaching field is because she enjoys working with children. It also runs in her blood. Her grandmother, Sherry Trahan, was also an elementary school teacher, and hearing stories about her grandmother’s experiences sparked something.
“She always liked to talk about it with me and it sparked an interest,” she explained. “As I grew up, I realized I was good at explaining things to people and then I really like kids a lot, so it was the perfect thing to go into.”
Trahan added that she also had becoming a social worker or a children’s physical therapist among other jobs related to taking care of children if her original plans do not pan out. She currently tutors high school students ,as well as, elementary students.
Another thing that is important to her is her faith. One of her interests outside of school is helping out the youth group at Harvest Time by playing music. It has also helped her out through hard times.
“That’s (her faith) the biggest thing in my life,” she said. “Every part of life that I have given over to God, has turned out for the best, so that’s what I put my faith in. I just try to dedicate it to faith.”
After graduating, Trahan will attend UL Lafayette and major in elementary education. She has been taking dual enrollment courses to lighten the load, and currently has nine credits while working on getting another six. She has been a 4.0 student for most of her time in high school, and has even scored a respectable 32 (36 is perfect) on the ACT. She has taken it about seven or eight times and admits that when she got that high of a score when she took it in the summer, she winged it compared to the other times.
Although she does mainly tutor those who are having problems with math, she said it was her least favorite subject. Trahan actually prefers history and english because she said she can express herself more freely in those subjects.
Throughout high school, Trahan has been in such groups as band, BETA and the Talented and Gifted Program. She plays flute, tenor sax and baritone sax in the band and plans on joining the Pride of Acadiana, UL’s marching band, and marching on the baritone sax.
She has also made parish, district and all-south honor bands over the past years. She even admits that she will miss band the most as she leaves Erath High.
“We’ve (band) become such a family, and it’s something I know that I’m not going to get the same thing out of anywhere else,” she revealed. “You can still do band later on, but it’s not necessarily about the music part of it. It’s about the family, the funny traditions and that whole atmosphere.”
After attending UL’s orientation last week, Trahan has been preparing to make the transition to college student, and she has been handling it well.
“I met a lot of people, so I think I’m decent at socializing, so I’ll be able to make friends OK,” she explained. “I took some college classes this year too. I think I’m ready, but I guess I’ll find out when I get there.”