At Herrin High School, the students of Educators Rising aren’t just learning what it means to teach. They’re learning what it means to lead — and to love a community enough to invest their futures in it.

The program began as a local answer to a national problem: the growing shortage of teachers across Illinois and beyond. Hickman, who has spent three decades in the classroom, joined with colleague Amber George, Herrin alumna and longtime early childhood education teacher, to build a space where the next generation of educators could begin their journeys while still in high school.

Through Herrin’s partnership with John A. Logan College, students can earn dual credit while exploring courses in both early childhood and secondary education. “We wanted to give them a head start,” Hickman says. “They save money, gain real experience, and see what this profession feels like before college ever begins.”

But the program is about more than logistics and coursework. As George explains, “We make it fun — that’s how you keep them coming. We compete, we attend Education Day at SIU, and we build friendships. It’s not just a class; it’s a club, a community.”

That community is growing. Roughly 55 Herrin students are now enrolled in Educators Rising, including about 30 in the early childhood program where teenagers teach three- to five-year-olds in a hands-on learning lab. The experience, George says, is transformative. “Every year we hold a celebration for the families, and it’s amazing to watch our students light up when they realize they’ve actually taught something meaningful.”

For senior Rylee Rady, those moments sealed her decision to pursue elementary education. “I just love working with little kids,” she says. “They’re in those first years where everything is new, and I get to help them build the basics that carry them through life.” She smiles when she describes how it feels to see a child “finally get it,” adding, “That’s when you know you’re making a difference.”

Her classmate Tyler Dodson, also a senior, plans to teach high school mathematics. His inspiration came from the teachers who guided him through his own four years at Herrin. “I’ve had so many great examples,” he says. “They made learning something I wanted to pass on.”

Both Rady and Dodson talk about the same thing in slightly different ways — the desire to give back to the people and the place that shaped them. “Herrin’s special,” Rady says. “You feel the support — from parents, from teachers, from the community. That makes you want to give that same support to others.”

George agrees. “Our students see how this town rallies behind its kids — in the classroom, on the field, everywhere. That gives them confidence to choose this path.”

For Hickman, nearing retirement after thirty years, helping to guide these young educators feels deeply personal. “It’s kind of poetic,” she says. “After all these years, I get to help prepare the students who might someday fill the very role I’ve loved.”

And for George, who graduated from Herrin herself nearly two decades ago, the experience is equally meaningful. “I get to watch our students become who I once was — kids from this same place who want to come back and make it stronger.”

The impact could be profound. Even if only half of Herrin’s Educators Rising students continue into the profession, the district will have helped answer one of the most pressing needs in local education: more teachers who not only know the community, but are the community.

For Hickman, George, Rady, and Dodson, that’s the real reward — a full-circle story where learning becomes legacy, and where a single high school in Herrin, Illinois, just might be helping to rewrite the future of education, one classroom at a time.