Bridget Beaver could have retired 10 years ago, but she’s not thinking about retiring in even the next five years.

She likes her work too much.

Beaver teaches English composition and is head of the English Department at Connors State College.

“I really love it,” she said. “Oh, sometimes I don’t like grading essays on Sunday afternoons, but I like the students, I like what I teach.”

Since 1974, she figures she’s taught the basics of writing college research papers to more than 8,000 students.

Beaver said those students have learned more than just writing term papers, that in doing those papers they have to read, think and write – all keys to success in life.

She’s not had any of those Hallmark moments when a former student touches her heart with a greeting card telling her how much she impacted their life.

“I do hear from students,” she said, recalling that one former student recently e-mailed her a message, just telling her they had run across her name and were thinking of her.

There was one student she had really tried to encourage when he was playing basketball for Connors and was a student in one of her classes. He eventually dropped out of school.

When she saw him several years later, he told Beaver he still remembered what she had told him in school.

She immediately hoped that she hadn’t said something hurtful.

What she had told him was that he could do better than he was doing. He eventually took her message to heart and finished college.

Love of reading began at an early age

Bridget Beaver said she probably picked English as her college major because of her love for books.