This fall, Chapman welcomed Ansley Hodge to the Human Geography department and as the girls JV basketball coach. 

This will be Hodge’s first year teaching, and she is very excited to work here and be surrounded in the good environment. 

“I like the family atmosphere of Chapman,” Hodge said. “I have always thought it was very family oriented, so this is the place I wanted to work.” 

Hodge is becoming more and more familiar with Chapman each day. She graduated from another district, and didn’t have any family or friends from district one. 

“I’m from District three, but we played Chapman in sports, but I didn’t have any family that went to Chapman,” Hodge said. 

Hodge said it’s a little stressful, but she makes a way and thinks about what motivates her to ignore the stress. 

“It’s a little stressful because of all the energy they have, but they have been fun, they say some pretty funny things but it’s definitely something I can get used to,” Hodge said. “My students motivate me to get up and teach and their smiling faces make my day and watching them learn is really cool.” 

Even though Hodge is very determined and excited about teaching it’s not what she has always wanted to truly do, but someone in her highschool years inspired her to go in the teaching direction.

“When I was younger I wanted to play in the WNBA, but I ended up not being tall enough for that, but I had a really great teacher my freshman year of high school,” she said. “She made me want to become a teacher, so it’s really cool that I’m teaching freshmen my first year as well.”

Freshman Brandon Miller said that Hodge makes the learning environment a healthy space and somewhere fun to learn, making school more enjoyable.

“She makes a very positive environment to learn in,” Miller said. “I like Mrs.Hodge because she makes me enjoy learning about (social studies) and she makes it fun.”