Student spotlight

This archived article was written by: Terlynn Westphal

Hannah Coleman is a feisty and driven voice at Utah State University Eastern. From Utah County, she recently returned from China where she taught English to children. Before coming to USU Eastern, Coleman participated in high school debate. “My main event was dramatic interpretation which is a 10-minute-long monologue that you put together.” She became a national champion in this event.
While at Copper Hills High School, Coleman served as the publicity and communications officer and participated in theatre. She uses her experience in these programs at Eastern; she accepted a theatre scholarship, serves on student government, and writes for The Eagle. “When a student has a problem with anything, I will fight for them. I defend them in student appeals court and things like that”.
Although Coleman keeps busy at school, she recognizes and appreciates that many opportunities are available at Eastern.
An ambitious person, She says something that exemplifies this is the motivation behind her traveling to China. “I really like learning a lot. I have studied Chinese for 10 years, so I thought I’d better go to China. I took a semester off school and left.”
Coleman believes that it is important to be educated in many things. “If I don’t understand a subject well, I go after it and learn what I can so that I am able to represent it.”
Coleman has learned that even though she enjoys being a leader, “it is important to take a back seat sometimes, you don’t always need to be in charge.”
She says, it is important to be considerate of others in order to get along with them. “During this election year, especially, you really see the polarity in people increase. I wish people could take an understanding approach. Whenever I form an opinion, I feel like it isn’t valid unless I can understand why people think the opposite.”