Running a new race
Marathon educator leads the way for future teachers
By Crystal Woerly
Building a new bachelor’s degree program from the ground up is a marathon, not a sprint. Lucky for Weatherford College, a dedicated lifelong educator who’s also completed over 100 marathons was selected for the job.
Dr. Leslie Hancock, program director for WC’s Bachelor of Applied Arts and Science in Early Childhood Education and Teaching, grew up in the classroom. The daughter of a schoolteacher, she helped create bulletin boards and read every book in her mom’s class.
She completed her undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University, her master’s degree at the University of Texas and her doctorate at Baylor University.
“I got a really comprehensive public school education from two philosophical lenses, and then my personal values were really validated when I went to Baylor,” Hancock said.
After completing her education, she moved to Dallas to be near her mom, who had just wrapped up cancer treatments, and a Christmas break jog took a devastating turn. While doing laps around her apartment complex, a car slid on the pavement and hit Hancock, shattering her ankle. What came next was a wheelchair, metal rods and pins in her legs, and lots of physical therapy.
“It was miraculous I was alive,” Hancock said, “But teaching high school in a wheelchair, I was feeling very sorry for myself. And my physical therapist said they’d have me running marathons when she was done with me.”
That comment planted a seed that grew into Hancock completing a 5K and eventually a marathon and then a goal to complete 40 marathons before her 40th birthday.
“Every time I go to run, it’s a prayer of thanksgiving because I know what it’s like to not be able to walk or to be able to do much of anything for yourself,” she said. “It’s prayer, meditation and celebration.”
In her 13-year career as a public school teacher, Hancock taught elementary, middle, and high school English, reading, and English for Speakers of Other Languages and was an ESL specialist. As she advanced into roles as an instructional coach and member of the administrative team, she realized she missed the classroom.
She also nurtured a desire to teach in higher education, however, when the chance to take on a full-time faculty role at the University of North Texas presented itself, she was unsure.
Contemplating this possible career change while taking a jog on a familiar, twisty path, she came across a sign that said, “Blind curve ahead.”
“And that was that was the answer,” Hancock said. “God said, trust me with this blind turn.”
The next day, she turned in her resignation and started her career in higher education. Now, she’s at Weatherford College, building an educational program to equip the next generation of teachers.
“If you had asked me 10 years ago what I’d be doing, I’d be like, ‘Maybe I’ll be a curriculum coordinator for ELA.’ I would never in my wildest dreams think that this would be something that I would have the privilege and the blessing to do,” Hancock said. “But here I am, doing everything possible to honor that blessing with my whole heart and full investment. And I can’t imagine working anywhere else at this point.”
In building the program, Hancock has kept her running journey in mind, understanding that the early miles are a different world than miles 24 and 25, and to reach the finish line, you must be strategic.
WC’s ECET degree is a two-year program that builds on an existing two-year degree or 60 credit hours. A new cohort will begin each semester and move through the program together.
The program’s first group of students began this spring, and Hancock is already witnessing the power of this new degree.
“As much as they’re going to go and change the lives of kids, it’s immediately changing their lives,” she said. “They walk taller. They’re excited and motivated. So, it’s not just a credential; this is literally changing the course of many people’s lives—giving them a living wage, retirement, you know, all those sorts of things.”
Hancock emphasized the personal nature of teaching, describing it as an act of caring and emotional labor that requires commitment and investment in students’ lives.
“It’s all-encompassing work,” she said. “My husband has come to accept that Leslie works in the evenings, Leslie works on the weekends, Leslie works on vacation. But Leslie’s orientation to work is different than a lot of people’s. For educators, we don’t go to work; we go to school.”
The students in WC’s ECET program are a fitting example of personal commitment, with most students coming from local communities who want to teach in that same community. With 50 percent of the teacher workforce qualifying for retirement in the next decade, there will be no job shortage.
Hancock hopes to add a section to the degree geared toward existing school district paraprofessionals who wish to earn their teaching degree, offering courses in a hybrid format that better fits their work schedules.
But you’ve got to walk before you can run.
Learn more about the BAAS in Early Childhood Education and Teaching here.
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This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of The Hilltop. View the full publication here.