Beaver Reflections:
I graduated from Beaver in 1987 and I loved it there. I came in the 8th grade from a public school and making that switch was one of the best decisions of my life. When I stepped into Beaver, I immediately felt at home. One of my first memories I have from Beaver was in my social studies class taught by Mr. Gow. He would always tell me that Hope, Arkansas, was the watermelon capital of the world. He said it so often that I got curious about it, so I wrote to the Hope Chamber of Commerce and they sent me an entire package and pamphlet on the watermelon festival! One of my other favorite memories was when Mrs. Moulding, my 10th grade English teacher, brought in a Dire Straits album and played the song “Romeo and Juliet” while we were reading the play. It made the play so much more accessible and made me a Dire Straits fan at the same time. Moments like that broke the logjam I found myself in during my time in the public school system. At Beaver, I was also a part of the drama club and chorus, which was nice to be able to bond with classmates outside of class.
What is #happeningnow in your life:
After graduating from Beaver, I went to Skidmore College where I majored in English. I then went to Tufts and received my master’s in education, believing that I was going to become an English teacher. However, I realized that teaching wasn’t for me. Later, I went to the Vermont College of Fine Arts and received my MFA in creative writing. Now, I write short stories and every once in a while someone will publish one! Most of my work has been in marketing and fundraising communications for higher education and nonprofits. For the past couple of years I’ve done that as a freelancer, which allows me to take on a wider variety of work from different sources with a much more flexible schedule.
“Being at Beaver allowed me to question things I was not allowed to question in previous
schools and learn subjects I would never have imagined I would learn about. They
taught me to understand and appreciate the critical thinking learning that was not
necessarily in my life before Beaver.”
– Hope Coppinger ’87
Advice to Beaver students:
There’s a myth out there that you need to get on a path and stick to that trajectory. Some people can do that, and some others may not find happiness that way. I am definitely in the latter group. Beaver allowed me to explore a lot of different interests and that enabled me to understand that I could create and shape my own path.
