Heading into her 15th year of teaching, with previous stops in Midland and Odessa, Leah Loftin will again guide third graders in their reading and writing endeavors at Brownwood ISD's Woodland Heights Elementary for a third straight year.

A graduate of Reagan County High School in Big Lake, and later UT-Permian Basin, being an educator is not the career path Loftin anticipated after leaving high school.

"Teaching was not my first thought," Loftin said.