Hanna Channell, a senior in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University, found success and value in her future teaching career, mentoring and developing youth, and her personal growth as a university student.
Coming to CSU from Denver, Colorado, Channell chose CSU thanks to its inviting atmosphere, and its “warm and welcoming energy,” Channell said.
Channell also joined CSU for its resources that support exploratory studies, which helped discover her passion for human development and family studies during her first year at CSU.
Discovery despite uncertainty
Channell mentions her struggle to adjust to college life during her first year at CSU. Having started her college career amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she found it challenging to connect socially.
“I felt very responsible for my health and the health of the people around me,” Channell said. “This made social interaction stressful and uninviting and left me feeling very disconnected. At the beginning of my second year, I lacked motivation, friends, and an interest in CSU.”
Despite feeling out of place during her second year, Channell’s growing interest in her classes pushed her to persevere in her work, and eventually, inspired her to shift her attitude from viewing college as a social experience to an academically focused one.
“Engaging with material and classes helped to shift my desire for a sense of belonging to a realization of a sense of purpose, and through this focus on academics I was able to find much more,” Channell said.
Channell found a critical turning point in her career at CSU when she declared her major in human development and family studies with concentrations in early childhood professions and prevention and intervention science. Channell found both an environment where she could express her interests and passion and a supportive community in her newfound major.
“I got to see not only what I wanted to do, but also what I didn’t. I think both are such vital experiences for college students when we have so many options available to us,” Channel said. “I absolutely love my department, the faculty teach with your well-being, development, and comprehension in mind.”
A future in youth success
Channell found many opportunities to express her interests in teaching and child development within the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, finding success in many roles from being a grade-school teaching assistant, to being a mentor in Campus Connections.
In her work as a teaching assistant for a 4th-grade teacher at Dunn Elementary in Fort Collins, Channell applied much of the content she learned to teach the children and allowed her to oversee a literacy tracking program to help with the students’ growth and motivation.
Channell’s time as a mentor in the Campus Connections program also bolstered her experience as a mentor in child development, where she helped at-risk youth in the program by providing social activities and academic support, and access to on-site therapy.
She also formed a connection with her mentee in the program and was happy to have the privilege to learn from her experience with youth.
One of Channell’s biggest accomplishments was being able to participate as a peer mentor for first-year, first-generation students within her major.
“Being a part of this program was really important to me because of my challenging experience in my first year,” Channell said. “Supporting their experience here has also helped me grow in my engagement at CSU and given me the community I came here looking for.”
Channell spent time in the program after she had entered the department, building relationships with faculty in the program, which urged her to stay and support the community, allowing her to bridge communication between students and faculty.
“Supporting the teaching team has helped prepare me for the professional world, and being a part of the planning process has given me a chance to build leadership skills,” Channell said.
Moving forward
After her graduation in the Spring of 2024, Channell will plan to join the Teach for America teaching program in the California Bay Area, promoting educational equity in low-income communities.
“I will be teaching special education in the Bay Area. I begin training in May and will be in my first year of teaching this coming fall,” Channell said.
In anticipation of her graduation, Channell reflected on what she will miss most about CSU.
“I find myself becoming nostalgic for the very energy that drew me here in the first place,” Channell said. “It is the sense of warmth from CSU that I will miss the most, and the encapsulation of growth that I am most thankful for.”
The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
