With “history chills” and gratitude in our hearts, we share that our beloved humanities teacher Jennifer Haase has taken a new teaching position that fulfills her life-long dream to live in Gettysburg. When Jennifer told us about her brave new plans after the end of the last school year, we of course wholeheartedly supported her. Anyone who knows Jennifer knows that she lives and breathes history. Even when she’s not teaching during the school day, she’s still teaching history through living history demonstrations as a Civil War nurse tending to Union soldiers, as an interpreter at Fort Nisqually, and as a living historian at Fort Steilacoom.

We have all seen her eyes light up as she shares an artifact, a story, or a recent discovery. Her eyes light up with the same spark when she sees students catch onto ideas, patterns, realizations, connections, skills and methods. She began teaching at Hyla in 1998 and every year since then has brought her passion for history, reading and writing, as well as her genuine joy in the unpredictable, playful, sincere, and energetic nature of middle school students. She wowed them with her elaborate Harry Potter costumes, extensive curation of artifacts, and flying trapeze skills. She encouraged them with her warm and gentle nature. She pushed them with her personalized approach and staunch belief in the academic methods to which she introduced them. And she celebrated them as they made essential leaps, like understanding history conceptually, not just chronologically, and when they questioned whose voices they weren’t hearing from the past. Her Exploration Week adventures included cooking competitions, land stewardship at Ekone Ranch, and the circus arts to name just a few. We are grateful for her years of devoted teaching and kindness she generously shared with everyone at Hyla.

Having graduated from Gettysburg College with a BA in History with specialties in Civil War Era Studies and Colonial America, Jennifer has long dreamed of returning to Gettysburg to establish roots. She now has the chance to do exactly that. Next year she’ll be teaching middle school history at York Country Day School as she sets up her new home in Gettysburg. Not surprisingly, she already has plans for more civil war living history and hopes to work as a seasonal interpretive park ranger or in the visitor center/museum during summer breaks. With immeasurable gratitude for her work at Hyla, we bid Jennifer a fond farewell and wish her joy and adventure in her new future that takes her deep into the past, right where she is happiest.

If you would like to send a message to Jennifer, please feel free to drop off cards at Hyla and we will send her a bundle at her new address. We have several surprises for Jennifer in the works as she settles into her new school and home so she knows her Hyla family is thinking of her and wishing her all the best.