She Grew Up Here. Now She Gets to Help Them Grow.

Three years ago, Lily Clevenger imagined coming back to Oakhill as a classroom teacher. This fall, “one day” is here. 

“Hopefully one day things will come full circle and I’ll get to be a classroom teacher here.” When Lily said those words in 2023, having an Oakhill classroom of her own was still somewhere in the future.

Lily completed 8th Grade at Oakhill in 2017 and was beginning to imagine a future in education. During an “Alumni, Where Are They Now?” episode of Oakhill’s Talking Heads podcast, she was asked what made her want to become a teacher. Lily talked about growing up around teachers, both in her family and at Oakhill, and why she was especially drawn to working with younger students.

Three years later, “one day” is here as Lily stepped into her first lead teaching classroom position as an Oakhill Toddler Teacher.

A Place That Feels Like Home

Ask Lily what has stayed with her from her years as an Oakhill student and she comes back to the people.

“My friends have been here, my teachers have been here, and of course, my family has been here too,” Lily said. “I really grew up at Oakhill Day School, and it’s been such a big part of my life.”

Her years as a student ended, but Lily kept finding her way back. Through Kids Club, Summer Camp, PE, Alumni, substitute teaching, and eventually the Pretoddler classroom, the place where she had grown up gradually became the place where she was learning to become an educator.

“Oakhill has always felt like a second home to me.”

The Things That Stay With Us

Of all the memories Lily could tell from her years at Oakhill, one of her favorites is ordinary to most, but special to her. She remembers Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Driskill having flavored gum waiting for students at special parts of the day, whether it was lunch or after recess. “It just made her class even more memorable than it already was,” she reflects.

It was a small part of an ordinary school day that years later, Lily still remembers and now, gets to be on the other side of moments like those.

For the children entering her Toddler classroom, she will be one of their earliest teachers. She’ll help create the routines they come to know, the relationships they build, and the little moments no one can predict they’ll remember years from now. Last year, while working as a Pretoddler Teaching Assistant, Lily said being on staff had made her Oakhill journey feel as though it had come full circle. As it turns out, there was still another chapter ahead.