Hannah Thomas (previously Richardson), who graduated from BHS in 2014, returns this fall to work as an intervention specialist working with special needs students.

Thomas was inspired to become a teacher because of her mother, who taught for 15 years.

As a student at BHS, Thomas was captain of both the cheer team as well as the track team. She says she was very into doing hair, nails and makeup.

Now Thomas loves to cook, bake and travel.

She is happy to have returned where she started in Beachwood schools.

“I really wanted to be closer to home,” she said. “I still live in Beachwood, so it was nice to be able to return and transition from a student to a teacher.”

It is also important to Thomas that she can be an example to all students in the building.

“[I hope] kids can say ‘I can become a teacher too,’ or ‘I have a teacher who actually looks like me,’” she said. “I think representation is super important.”

This school year Thomas’ goal is to have her students be successful, so she had all her students write a personal goal, and she wants to make sure she sets them up for success.

She is recently married and also has a dog named Chicken Nugget, a Yorkshire terrier.

Thomas’ favorite subject in high school was English, so she enjoyed Mr Luzar and Mr. Davis’s classes.

“I had Mr. Davis my senior year,” she said. “He was very sweet and a great English teacher.”