No Limits: Hall inspires students to be bold

Bennett’s Mill Middle engineering and technology teacher Susan Hall pushes her students to take on new challenges.

Growing up in a small town in Connecticut, Hall couldn’t go to a four-year college right out of high school. She worked at McDonald’s through high school, and she wasn’t keen on wasting time waiting on college so she joined the Air Force.

“I was not going to sit around and do nothing,” she said.

She jumped into the telecommunications field and was active duty for a little over four years, then did a couple more years on reserve duty. After she left the Air Force, she kept looking for new challenges like working on a rocket for NASA.

Hall was always comfortable working in fields where females were rare. She believed that someone has to be the first, so why not her.

“I learned really early on that you have not because you ask not. You need to put your foot out there and have to be confident in what you want,” she said. “The worst somebody can say is no.”

Hall later moved to Georgia with her husband and took her career in a totally different direction, going back to college to become a teacher. Her first role was in a special education classroom, and she also taught math, English, and science.

“My mom says I always wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “It just felt natural.”

At Bennett’s Mill Middle since 2014, she loves working with people with a passion to help students succeed beyond academics.

“They’re trying to always a find a space (for students) to feel safe or be who they are.”

She encourages her students to be bold.

“You don’t know what you don’t know. You’ve just got to ask,” she said. “A lot of doors opened to me just because I was willing and brave and had enough courage to ask.”

Hall finds great joy in seeing students go from tears to tears, from tears of frustration to tears of joy.

“That’s what’s cool. That’s what I love about what I get to do,” she said. “If I can get you to finish or I can get you to push through and learn something, then you’ve made success.”

She wants to be a teacher that shows students they don’t need to put limitations on themselves.

“I want them to feel comfortable with the unknown, comfortable with taking a challenge,” she said. “I want to be the person that’s asking you to go beyond where you’ve been and see what you can come up with.”

“The Honor Role,” an official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.

Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and promoted on the social media channels of Fayette County Public Schools.

Episodes will also be available here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2200811.