Sarah Sledd '12: Reflects On Teaching At Her Former School

Sledd helps one of her many Graphic Design students.

by Gracean Ratliff '23

​Sarah Sledd ‘12 is the Upper School Graphic Design and Yearbook teacher. As a former student, she now gets to work with some of the teachers that taught her.  She also gets to work with her mother, who is just down the hallway. 

Sledd attended North Cross for 13 years, making her a “Fat Pencil Student”.

She was taught by teachers that impacted her greatly.

“I had amazing teachers," Sledd said, "and I think they're the reason I love learning as much as I do.". Although she enjoyed her middle and lower school years more than her upper school, she loves the environment now, compared to when she was a student. 

Something was missing in her Upper School experience and now working here, she now realizes it; the SCA. During her time in the upper school, the SCA didn’t do spirit week, the senior trip, and homecoming and prom were not as big of a deal.

“I'll take a minute and brag about the SCA in the Upper School," Sledd said, "that was the key thing missing from my upper school experience was that like the togetherness, the sense of belonging working toward things together."

In her junior year, she took Mr. Jeff Canards Graphic Design class and fell in love with it.

“I'm not a great fine artist," Sledd said, "but I love the combination of the art with the organization that design requires”.

She then went on to Liberty University Online and received a Bachelor of Science, in fine art with a focus in graphic design.

A requirement for her schooling was to partake in an internship. Through her many connections in the school, she found an internship at North Cross helping out with a capital campaign. After working under Jessica Schindhelm for a while, the campaign grew, and by the time her internship was over, she was eventually hired full-time to work on the project.

 After two or three years of working on the campaign, she was asked to be the Graphic Design Teacher. 

Sledd has been teaching Upper School Graphic Design only for a couple of years but also finds time to teach the Yearbook class.

​ Aside from teaching, she leads the Media Club; a club where students write captions and take pictures for the North Cross Instagram page. She also does a lot of marketing for the school as well. This year is her first year of full-time teaching, having three design classes and her yearbook class as well.

Following in her Mother and Grandmothers footsteps, Sledd lands herself a role as a teacher. “ I never thought I'd be a teacher," Sledd said, "but my grandmother's a teacher, my mother's a teacher, I was like I’m never going to do it. I'm not going to be a teacher. Here I am. A teacher."

Being right across the hallway from Mrs. Laundry, her 10th-grade chemistry teacher; Dr. Finney, her senior year Latin teacher; and now her boss, Mr. Belderes, her math teacher for three years and her D’Hart advisor; Sledd felt right at home working here. 

While being a teacher’s kid for her whole life, working with her teachers was the same feeling. “Already being a teacher's kid,  I was used to seeing them in different capacities," Sledd said, "so it becomes natural very quickly,”  

Another positive aspect of working here is being able to be just a walk down the hallway from her mother, Mrs. Holley.

“I don't really know a life not being around her every day," Sledd said, "because when I was a student she was a teacher and we're here every day together." Holley and Sledd are the Mother-Daughter duo on campus and her pretty much attached at the hip. “It's kind of awesome,” Sledd said, “there's a built-in buddy to eat lunch or to go somewhere with, so it's nice.” 

From once being impacted by her teachers, she now gets to do the same to hers. Zane Ratliff ‘22, a Graphic Design 3 student, reflects on how Mrs. Sledd has impacted him throughout his Upper School years. “Mrs. Sledd has helped me in a lot of different ways, mainly helping me with my D’Hart speech," Ratliff said, "I really don’t know where I would be without her. She has been a great graphic design teacher and is just a great overall role model.”