You Can Go Home, Again

The author Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood.”

Wolfe obviously never attended school in the Platte Valley, where many of those who now teach were once students. Case in point, Encampment K-12 School this year welcomed three new teachers—Mandy (Harris) Westerman, Bailey Miller and Noelle Peterson—who graduated from Encampment in 2013, 2017 and 2019.

A Sense of Community

In a town like Encampment, with a population of 386, the school can often serve as a center of the community. This was something noted by all three new teachers when recounting their days of walking the halls of their alma mater.

“I really enjoyed going to school here in Encampment. It was a choice for me to come here. I was districted to go to Saratoga, but I came here. I just really enjoyed the atmosphere of Encampment,” said Westerman, who now teaches Vocational Agriculture at Encampment K-12 School. “I really liked the small-town, rural community a lot. It’s a very positive place, a very positive environment.”

While Westerman made the choice to go to Encampment, both Miller and Peterson grew up in the halls of the school. According to Miller, who teaches 5th grade, going to a small school like Encampment was crucial in learning life lessons before ever going out into the world.

“I started in preschool and I never had to leave the building, which was both a curse and also very, very awesome. You have to build long lasting relationships,” said Miller. “I think this town and this place is so good at allowing you to build relationships and figure out how to solve problems with people. You don’t get new people, you just have to stick with the same people.”

While there may have been the occasional conflict between students which would provide lessons on resolution, all three alumni-turned-educators still focused on the family-like feeling of the school.

“I loved going to school here. I think the biggest thing for me that made me enjoy it so much was just that close knit family feel. We had the younger kids with the high school kids, the mentorship and the relationships that those kids had together,” said Peterson, who teaches 1st grade, “I remember, through my elementary years, looking up to all those high schoolers and wanting to be them one day.”

For all three teachers, while they appreciated the sense of community when they were students, going to college and teaching elsewhere seemed to further cement how rare a place like the Platte Valley and Encampment is in this day and age.

“I think that Encampment and the Platte Valley are such a tight knit community. I was nervous to come back because I had been in Texas for so long and I felt like my life had changed a lot from when I was here as a child,” said Westerman. “Everybody has been so incredibly welcoming and excited, and that makes you feel right at home. I’m not sure you get that everywhere.”

Colleagues and Mentors

Since 2013, 2017 and 2019 there have been few changes to the educators at Encampment K-12 School. According to all three alumni, it was at first an odd feeling to view their former teachers as professional colleagues.

“I feel so honored just to be able to work alongside them. Initially, it was definitely a weird feeling going from being a student walking the halls to being their colleague,” said Peterson. “I just feel so blessed that I learned from these people and now I get to continue to learn from them in a more professional role.”

Working with primary students, Peterson works in the same wing of the school as her mother, Janice Peterson. While Noelle teaches 1st grade, her mother teaches 4th grade. It’s something that the younger Peterson is enjoying as she enters her second year of education.

“It’s great. I was a little nervous but it’s been really great. She’s been such a great leader and a role model to me,” said Peterson. “It’s nice to have that mother figure here, too.”

Miller, coming in to teach 5th grade, said she recognizes she has big shoes to fill. Her predecessor is Jake Johnston, who stepped into the role of principal for Encampment K-12 School. She remembers when Johnston first came to teach at the school in 2012, just five years before she graduated.

“I remember he was tall and he was always smiling and he always had a positive attitude. I remember, as a young person in this school, thinking ‘Wow, he is so respectful and he is so kind to everyone,’” said Miller. “Coming back, I was extremely scared because there were some big shoes to fill. I would say that he’s on a whole different level. That being said, he isn’t a person who ever puts you lower than him.”

According to Miller, Johnston has been a great mentor—much like her other former teachers—and ready to offer help and advice whenever needed.

“It was really intimidating stepping back into this school because I admired each and everyone one of my teachers so much,” said Miller. “Being a part of that, the bar is set so high here. After being here for the first nine weeks of school, they’ve been nothing but supportive.”

Westerman, like Miller and Peterson, was also nervous about returning to her former school as a teacher.

“I think ‘What better place to be?’ because it’s almost like your mentors start to become more than a mentor to you. I’ve really leaned into some of those relationships already and reached out to those people for advice,” said Westerman. “To be in such close contact with people that had such a big influence on me before—and for me to be able to feel I can bring something to the table as well—that is a really positive thing.”

Different Plans

Though all three graduates now teach, going into education wasn’t something they had originally considered as they prepared to leave Encampment K-12 School. Westerman, for example, attended Laramie County Community College before transferring to Texas Tech and graduating with a bachelor's degree in Animal Science in 2017.

“Like most high school kids, I had an idea of what I wanted to do and it changed about 50 times since graduating from high school,” said Westerman. “It [teaching] was never really something I had thought about until my last year of college when all of a sudden the world started seeming a lot more real and I was trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be.”

According to Westerman, as her graduation from Texas Tech drew ever closer, she reached out to former teachers—including a former ag teacher from Encampment K-12 School—who encouraged her to become an ag teacher.

For Miller, that guidance came from a different source. Instead of teaching, she had planned on becoming a radiology technician.

“That’s a big reason why I decided on Casper, because they were one of the only schools that had a radiology program,” said Miller.

Then, during her senior year at Encampment K-12 School, Miller helped Brooke Seitz with bible study on Easter Sunday. She said she “just felt led” to work with children.

“I came back [to school] the next Monday and asked Mrs. [Deb] Burke to help me change that through all the communications,” said Miller.

Even after changing her major to elementary education, Miller said she struggled with the decision, wondering if she wanted to be a teacher.

“Then, I student-taught,” said Miller. “I had never felt more at home in a place. I was good at it and I loved kids. I loved teaching and I loved solving problems. So, here I am.”

For Peterson, even with having both her parents as teachers, there was the possibility of taking a different path.

“When I graduated, I was pretty torn. I was pretty sure about education but then I had that nursing side,” said Peterson. “I knew I wanted to work with kids, I loved working with kids no matter what. I was initially thinking [about] children's oncology or teaching.”

All Roads Lead Home

While all three teachers returned to Encampment K-12 School at the same time, they brought with them different experiences.

“After I graduated, I taught at a very small school—basically the exact same size as Encampment—in Fayetteville, Texas. I was the ag teacher there and coached basketball and helped with softball and track as well,” said Westerman. “After I taught there, I spent one year in a town called Comfort, Texas where I taught building and construction trades.”

Then, Westerman took a two year hiatus before moving back to the Valley. Then, an opening presented itself at her former school.

“When I had originally started thinking [about] teaching, my goal was always to end up in a place like Encampment,” said Westerman. “It was almost kind of a no-brainer to join the staff and apply for the job. I’m really glad I did because I think it was the best decision I’ve made.”

Miller taught 5th grade for three years in Douglas, Wyoming. She said she loved her coworkers and her principal but some life changes led her to consider a change.

“I missed my family and I felt like I wasn’t around when they needed me. That was hard, especially when you grow up in that and you are literally trained to be there for people,” said Miller. “I loved Douglas, I loved the people I worked with and I loved my principal. The decision to move was really hard. A lot of people reached out and said ‘We’d love to have you.’ That was overwhelming.”

Peterson, after graduating from the University of Wyoming 2023, taught at Woodland Park Elementary School in Sheridan for a year.

“I learned a lot and I kind of liked being out on my own and doing my own thing. When there ended up being three openings here [at Encampment K-12 School] I just kind of felt drawn that I needed to come back,” said Peterson. “I applied and, thankfully, got the position.”

Regardless of the life circumstances which contributed to their return, all three teachers said the feeling of community in the Platte Valley and Encampment were major factors in their decision.

“I would say that community is probably one of the biggest things that drew us all back here. Noelle and I are really close and we’ve talked about it a lot,” said Miller. “Not that our past [school] district’s have been anything short of awesome, but the community and the people that will literally give you a helping hand, that’s something you don’t see at those other schools.”