Kristiana Hamilton loves teaching, but it hasn't always been that way.

Growing up, Southwood Valley Elementary School's new principal said, she was willing to do anything but teach.

After years of struggling, though, Hamilton decided she had no choice.

"I couldn't get away from education, even though growing up I swore I would never do it," she said. "I tried to run away from it, but it was meant for me to be there."

College Station schools Superintendent Eddie Coulson named Hamilton to lead Southwood Valley this week.

She will replace Chad Jones, who announced in May that he was taking a job as a high school principal in Rockdale. She begins work July 28.

Coulson said this week that Hamilton was a clear choice for the job.

"She is a great leader," he said. "She is very much an advocate for students, for staff and for the College Station community."

When she was growing up in La Marque, Hamilton said, everyone she knew was either a teacher or a minister or worked at the town's chemical plant.

Hamilton had an earful of teaching before she ever made it to school. So when she graduated, she was determined not to be a teacher.

She went to Prairie View Texas A&M planning to study broadcast journalism but changed her mind when she realized she couldn't have a family and maintain the demanding schedule of a news anchor.

After working with a nonprofit counseling group, Hamilton said, she got a job with the Texas Workforce Commission, where she helped many people who couldn't read or write apply for jobs.

"I got a little depressed," she said. "I thought if we don't go out there and educate people, then everybody's going to end up like the clients we were seeing."

Hamilton realized she had to try to make a difference.

So she enrolled in an alternative teaching certification program and started teaching in Houston.

"I worked in a very tough area," she said. "That was the best experience of my life."

She moved to College Station six years later and began work at Neal Elementary in Bryan.

She switched to College Station schools three years later to be closer to Texas A&M University, where she was working toward a master's degree.

Hamilton taught sixth-grade math at Oakwood Intermediate School for six years before becoming assistant principal at Cypress Grove Intermediate School four years ago.

Hamilton says she's excited about her new position, although she misses teaching.

"I think you never lose that joy and that passion for being in the classroom," she said.

Hamilton, 43, lives in Bryan with her husband, two teenage children and a stepdaughter.

She says she's already overwhelmed, thinking of all the things she has to learn at her new job.

"The most important thing is getting to know my staff," she said, adding that she hopes to make Southwood Valley, which is now a recognized campus, an exemplary one. "And not just by state guidelines; our aim is to reach high."

• Janet Phelps' e-mail address is janet.phelps@theeagle.com.

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