Most teachers fondly recall their high school days in distant school districts, but for teacher Ashley Martin, those memories are strikingly similar to the ones being formed in Cy Ranch right now. Martin was a part of Cy Ranch’s first fledgling graduating Class of 2011, and she is the school’s first student to come back in a faculty position.

Martin attended Stephen F. Austin University and received a BFA in Photo and Painting. She has now returned to the hallowed halls of her former school to teach Digital Media, a subject she holds dear.

“I wanted to put that passion that I have for art in other people,” she said. “I wanted to show students a way that they can figure out how to be creative and know that they are an artist no matter what. I wanted to give them a break from the right and wrong and have them explore their creativity.”

That passion that Martin hopes to pass on to her students was instilled in her by her own photography teacher, Karl Neumann, who is still at Cy Ranch teaching photography to a new generation of students.

“He really pushed me into the arts,” she said. “He’s my mentor and he’s taken me under his wing for however many years he’s known me, since I was 14.”

Neumann isn’t Martin’s only teacher-turned-colleague. Martin’s teachers include Coach Hutchinson, Coach Bowman, Ms. Locklin, Ms. Burns, and Coach Silberschatz, to name a few. While it’s odd working alongside her former teachers, Martin says the relationships she’s built with them as a student are only strengthened.

“All of them [inspired me],” she said. “That’s the thing: Here, you don’t have one person that doesn’t have an impact on you. … They’re now teaching me how to be a teacher, and they’re giving me even more of a role model situation.”

Martin’s love of the arts is what drew her to teaching, and she hopes to create the same bonds she has with her former teachers with her students.

“My favorite thing is being able to make art all day and see my own students develop in their own ways of becoming an artist,” she said. “Being able to talk to them and hang out with them all day and establish a relationship with them is a really unique thing.”

Cy Ranch has changed in many ways since her time away, but Martin said the most jarring thing about returning after four years was the sheer size of the school.

“It was very small, not crowded at all,” she said. “You could run down the hallway with your arms open and not hit anyone. It’s grown a great deal. Now, I’m in the portables, but [back then] we had open classrooms if we needed some.”

Despite the major changes, one thing has stayed the same: Cy Ranch is still making impacts.

“It’s is the best school in the district,” Martin said. “It’s a really cool thing to come and give back to a school that gave me a lot.”