Globe: What school did you attend for high school, and when did you graduate? 

Sarah Gietschier-Hartman, PE/Health Teacher: I attended Hazelwood Central High School and graduated in 2003.

Globe: How does Hazelwood Central compare to here?

Gietschier-Hartman: One of the biggest differences between the high school that I went to and this high school is the size. There are approximately 800 students at Clayton High School, whereas my high school had around 2,500 students. As a result, my grade level was almost as large as this entire school, and the building itself was also huge. Our main hallway was a quarter of a mile long. That is one big difference, just the enormous size. 

I feel like Clayton students are well-connected with each other. They have so many friends, acquaintances, and people with whom they can collaborate. At my school, it felt a lot different, because you could go an entire day of all of your classes and not know most of the people. After all, there were just too many people to get to know. 

Globe: Were you involved in any sports or clubs?

Gietschier-Hartman: I was involved in as many things as I could get involved in. I played tennis, basketball, soccer, and competed as a pole vaulter on the track team. Also, I was on the newspaper and yearbook staff. 

Globe: Did you hold any leadership positions in those extracurricular activities?

Gietschier-Hartman: In my senior year, on the yearbook staff, I was the sports editor, so I was in charge of the entire sports section for the yearbook. That was a big leadership role, but I didn’t serve as, like, the president of anything or anything like that.

Globe: What’s the funniest thing that happened during your high school experience?

Gietschier-Hartman: When I was in high school, I was on the basketball team, and there was a player on the boys’ team who was five-foot-eight-inches. He ended up playing Division One football at Minnesota. Before one of my basketball games, he asked if I wanted to play one-on-one, and I’m 5-foot-3. I said sure, but I made two rules: I got the ball first, and if I scored, the game was over. When the game started, I had the ball: I went in for a layup and shot towards the backboard. He put his arm up, nothing like crazy, not even that big of an athletic move. My shot went right into his hand, and it came down super fast, and broke my nose. It is just one memory that really sticks out.

Globe: What were your favorite and least favorite subjects? 

Gietschier-Hartman: My favorite subject was art, so I took every art class that I could get my hands on when I was in high school. There was a period when I considered going into an art-oriented career. The reason why I liked it so much is was because it gave me a place where I could create and connect with other people in the class. Also, I had a good relationship with my art teacher and had access to all the materials. I could go wherever I wanted in the room, and always have access to the stuff I needed. It also just felt like a really fine place to be.

My least favorite subject was math because it was always very challenging. It was just hard for me, not because of the teachers,  but because of the subject. I struggled with it starting in about sixth grade, and it just continued to get more difficult for me the older I got. However, I did have some really amazing math teachers. In fact, the one year in high school where I was super successful. I felt really confident. I got a really good grade, and I felt like I was understanding what we were doing. The teacher was actually Mrs. Archer, who now works here as our instructional coach, so we have reconnected over the years. 

Globe: How would your peers and teachers have described you in high school?

Gietschier-Hartman: My peers would have described me as somebody who was athletic, enthusiastic, funny, well-liked, a good student, and a rule follower. People would probably describe me like that now as well.

My teachers would have described me as someone whom they enjoyed teaching. They would have said that I was a student who really loved coming to school. Also, somebody who had a great sense of humor. 

Globe: Did you have an after-school job?

Gietschier-Hartman: I had two jobs in high school. One was working at a garden nursery, where I helped care for plants and assisted customers in purchasing plants for their gardens. It was a great job because I got to specialize in certain types of plants. Now I have a garden at my house, and a lot of my knowledge came from that job. 

Then my other job was working at Sporting News, a major sports publication where my dad had worked for about 30 years. I was an intern there, so I worked there in the summers, and  I continued to work there during my college breaks. I would help edit things from captions to fact-checking. I would also call different places to make sure that the information was correct. It was a really fun job.