With another successful commencement behind us, recent High Point University graduates are preparing to commence prestigious career paths around the world at Fortune 500 companies, international service programs, public school systems, top-tier law, medical and graduate school programs, and many other esteemed organizations thanks to their journey at HPU. Here’s a glimpse of one extraordinary senior from the Class of 2018:
Name: Chloe Tyler
Hometown: New London, New Hampshire
Major: Tyler graduated with a B.A. in special education-adapted curriculum.
Post-graduation plans: Tyler serves as a special education functional skills lead teacher at Petree Elementary School in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Tyler is a teacher in a self-contained classroom for students with profound disabilities. She teaches academic and daily living skills to her class of kindergartners, first and second graders. The first three years in school are the most formative years for education, so her goal is to ensure that students leave her class with the tools they need to be successful. Tyler began her career at Petree Elementary the Monday after she graduated.
How HPU helped you get there: “HPU has been the most empowering incredible experience of my life. All of my inspirational role models have come from relationships made at High Point. The Stout School of Education has immersed me into my field ever since my freshman year when I was first placed into a school for observations. Little by little, they have pushed me to be more involved in the classroom long before spring semester senior year, when I was student teaching independently. The opportunities offered by Career & Professional Development at HPU are intelligently designed. You spend four years learning how to be a professional, capable and determined individual without even knowing it. HPU taught me through exploratory learning and real-life experience how to be a better person, a strong self-advocate and the top candidate for my dream job. I used the skills and work experience I cultivated at HPU during my interviews for potential job opportunities and was offered every job I interviewed for. I ultimately accepted a job which I began just two short days after I received my diploma.”
Most impactful mentor at HPU: “I could not possibly choose my most impactful mentor at HPU because everyone at this school shaped me into the conscientious, hard working and confident person I am as a graduate. I was taught to be appreciative by the hospitality team, prompt by campus enhancement, compassionate by The Office of Student Life, courteous by my roommates, meticulous by my professors, creative by my choir director, spiritual by the chapel and religious life, loyal by my now fellow alumni, extraordinary by Nido Qubein and proud of the campus I grew up on.”
Most impactful moment at HPU: “My most impactful moment at HPU was a day I experienced my freshman year in the spring. I vividly remember walking to class in the Wilson School of Commerce. It was a lovely day when suddenly it began to pour rain. It rained and rained and rained, and my seemingly long walk from my dorm to the School of Commerce dragged on through the buckets of rain. Suddenly, a fellow student drove up next to me in their car, rolled down the window and told me to get in. I had never seen them before; I still to this day don’t know their name. This day taught me to always think of others and try to help when I can. You never know when you do something that a person will never forget.”
Advice for underclassmen: “Make relationships with everyone you possibly can. You are in a perfect safe space at HPU to have connections all over the world when you graduate. These connections may be professional, but many of them will be personal. There will be nothing more valuable than the friends you meet, the hands you shake and the memories you share on this campus.”