Vermont Teacher Forgivable Loan Program helps Hannah Jenkins become an art teacher

As a junior at South Burlington High School, Hannah Jenkins, who uses she/they pronouns, signed up for the healthcare program at Burlington Tech Center, thinking she might go into nursing. When her advisor told her she wouldn’t be able to take chorus since the bus wouldn’t get her back to campus in time, it was almost a deal-breaker.

“I told her ‘absolutely not.’ I am not giving up chorus,” Hannah recalls. “I insisted on it. I said, I’ll be 10 minutes late to class, but I am not giving that up.”

Her strong love of music—and of the arts in general—ended up being a helpful guidepost when she realized, because of those early courses, that nursing wasn’t the right fit.

From frustration to inspiration 

“While I decided not to pursue nursing, I knew I wanted to help others,” says Hannah, for whom that early discovery was helpful, but left her feeling adrift as she started her senior year at South Burlington. “Then I got into a rant with someone about all the reasons I didn’t appreciate the education system as a student. They said, ‘then why don’t you become a teacher?’” That conversation made Hannah pause and reflect, and eventually, agree.

Until that conversation, college wasn’t on Hannah’s radar. She had watched her older siblings make their ways in the world, seeing her oldest brother go to college for engineering and her older sister move up in the working world without a degree. Since Hannah didn’t know what she wanted to do, but knew she could work hard, she planned to follow her sister’s path.

“I knew college was really expensive, and to me it was not something I could do if I didn’t know how I would use it,” says Hannah.

After realizing that teaching would offer her a sustainable way to continue to pursue music—and that path required a college degree—she decided, at the last minute, to apply.

“Plus, after COVID, I really needed to get out of the house,” says Hannah, who graduated from high school in the spring of 2021. “I decided I’d go to college, and if it clicks, it clicks.”

Finding support through education challenges

College definitely clicked for Hannah, who is now working toward not one, but two degrees from the Johnson campus of Vermont State University. She expects to graduate in spring 2026 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a bachelor’s in K-12 art education.

As Hannah got further into college-level music training, stage fright and impostor syndrome started to take their toll. “I realized that I probably wasn’t going to get to the level I wanted to in music. So I started making some pro/con lists and thinking about other things I could do."

Once again, her class schedule provided good information.

I never needed to take art classes in high school or college because I automatically fulfilled all those arts requirements with music. But I always took those classes anyway because I really enjoyed them. Plus, others told me I was good at art and good at explaining things in a way students could understand. So I decided to go with that.

Now focused on visual arts rather than music, Hannah is most excited about her current class on Greek art and culture, which will culminate in a 10-day class trip to Greece this summer. “This will be my first international trip, other than going to IKEA in Montreal. I’ve always wanted to travel, and this was a good way to get that experience. I jumped on it so fast."

Hannah has traveled some within the U.S.—to Boston, New York City and Philadelphia—with the TRIO program, which she’s been part of as a student and a mentor. “The TRIO program has been instrumental for me,” says Hannah, who appreciated the tutoring and advisory supports for students who are modest-income, first-generation, or, as she says, “just didn’t know what to expect from college.”

In Hannah’s case, the transition from high school to college was complicated by an undiagnosed learning disability. “I came into college pretty sure I had dyslexia, but without a diagnosis, I couldn’t get any accommodations.” While she was able to manage in high school, college-level academics made that impossible. TRIO connected her with the services needed to obtain diagnoses of dyslexia, dyscalculia and ADHD, which qualified her for class accommodations. “That saved me in so many ways,” says Hannah, who now works for TRIO as a tutor and a part-time student assistant.

Forgivable teacher loan

TRIO also connected her with a significant support on the financial side: the Vermont Teacher Forgivable Loan, managed by VSAC.

“My TRIO mentors gave me the VSAC scholarship booklet and told me to read it cover to cover and highlight everything I could apply for,” says Hannah, who knocked tens of thousands off her annual tuition through that forgivable loan program plus several other scholarships she highlighted—and eventually won. The combined savings, she says, is what made it possible for her to learn in Greece with her art and culture class.

The Vermont Teacher Forgivable Loan Program, which erases one year of student loan debt for each year the student works in a Vermont school after graduation, will save Hannah about $10,000. “It’s something I tell all education majors to keep their eye on,” says Hannah. “It’s a great opportunity”—and a program that’s allowing her to pursue a career that’s right in tune with her earliest personal mission: helping others.

My goal is to become the type of teacher I would have wanted to have. Because I’ve struggled with undiagnosed disabilities, I understand how students can struggle academically and how much that can harm their confidence. I want to be a teacher who’s willing to listen to those students and adapt their teaching style to help them be successful. It takes time and patience, but it’s so important.