Alumni Story

On enjoying the variety of topics and the small class sizes in her business administration major:

The fact that I was able to work closely with my classmates to complete projects and research was meaningful to me.”

Hannah chose Catawba because for her, it was close to home, and she always thought it was a beautiful campus. Her dad is a Catawba alumnus, having gone back to college to finish his degree, so the decision made sense in that way as well. Coming from a small Christian high school, the smaller class sizes Catawba offered appealed to her. 

Hannah knew she wanted to major in Spanish. In her senior year of high school, she went to the country of Panama, and really wanted to be able to communicate with the people in their native language. “Spanish had always been fun to me and something that I was naturally drawn to.” Deciding to double major in business administration came “after a lot of encouragement from my family.” 

Having studied Spanish in high school, Hannah tested out of some beginning Spanish courses at Catawba. That lightened the course load necessary toward completing the Spanish major, allowing her to take the additional classes in business administration to double major.

She found the Catawba professors teaching Spanish to be very encouraging and supportive, “Even when I was making quite a few mistakes,” she remarks. “I loved my Spanish department professors.”

A local, Hannah was a commuter student, living at home nearby. She spent much of her time on campus in classes, but in nice weather she liked taking advantage of the walking trails in the preserve or finding a quiet spot outdoors to study. That hasn’t entirely changed, she remarks, “Same as my college days, if it’s nice outside, that’s where I like to be.”

Currently, Hannah teaches Spanish at Salisbury Academy. “Teaching 3rd through 8th grades early on I can make it fun and cultural. Students are much more willing to take chances in a language at a younger age and risk making a mistake when learning to speak.” She started work there in 2016 with her Spanish degree, but with no teaching experience, she explains. After a year, she decided she wanted to pursue teaching as a career. “So, I went back to school. I graduated from UNCC in 2019 with a master’s degree in teaching foreign language.”

Catawba is now part of her present through its recent partnership with Salisbury Academy that allows their high school students to take a variety of classes taught by Catawba faculty. “These are both of my schools,” she says with fondness, “In a way, I feel like there’s ownership.”