It is not often that students ever return to their high schools after they graduate. However, this is not the case for Ms. Julia Foster, who has been working as a substitute teacher for the school since the beginning of the school year.

     Foster graduated in 2019 and has seen many of her former teachers in the school. Some of these teachers include English teachers Mrs. Emilie Phillips and Mrs. Carla Harward, as well as French teacher Mrs. Larissa Arist. Foster came back to the school after already being a substitute for HCPS. “I received a scholarship from HCPS called the GET scholarship, which stands for ‘Growing Exceptional Teachers.’ It was for students who were going into a major in college that was a needed teaching area for HCPS,” says Foster. When the teacher turned 18, she began working as a substitute teacher for elementary school.

     Foster explains that she went to college to become a foreign language teacher – more specifically, a French teacher. To train more intensively for the job, she spent around six months studying abroad in France. “I went to Goucher College to become a French teacher. I knew that Goucher offered a mandatory study abroad as a graduation requirement, so that was really enticing to me. Because of Covid, I wasn’t sure that I was even going to be able to study abroad, especially in the traditional way where I’m supposed to live there.” She continues that she was “lucky enough” that the travel restrictions were lifted in her junior year of college.

     Foster reports that studying abroad is “very intensive,” as well as very immersive.  She had 14 weeks of courses, and a 21-week internship where she worked at a French bakery, also known as a patisserie. “It was so useful to me,” she shares. “I learned so much, and I would not be able to speak French as fluently as I do now had I not gone.” 

     The teacher states that not much was surprising to her upon her return to NH, and the only vast differences were the new bathroom policies and the participation in Spirit Week, which she says is “way different” from what she remembers – when she was in school, it was “more lively,” according to her. She also adds that something that surprises her is the amount of things she remembers when she walks through the hallway; “I remember things I have not thought about in maybe eight years, which is odd,” she shares.