At age 26, vice principal at Warrior Run Middle School ready for new role

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February 4, 2013

At age 26, vice principal at Warrior Run Middle School ready for new role

By Ashley Wislock The Daily Item The Daily Item Mon Feb 04, 2013, 01:58 PM EST

TURBOTVILLE — Alan Hack said much of his success as an educator can be traced back to his own teachers and mentors.

Hack, 26, began his new role as vice principal of Warrior Run Middle School in December. He first wanted to become a mathematics teacher after being influenced by his own teachers at a young age, he said.

“I wanted to have the opportunity to change students’ perceptions of math,” he said.

Hack — a 2004 graduate of Benton High School in Columbia County — began working on that mission after graduating from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove in 2007. After graduation, Hack taught at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School in Lehigh County.

It was there that his desire to work in administration was born, he said.

“I worked with two phenomenal administrators who encouraged me to pursue my master’s in education administration to specifically make an impact at the instructional level,” he said.

In 2010, Hack returned to the Susquehanna Valley, taking a job as a math teacher at the Danville Middle School before taking the job at Warrior Run, he said.

It’s been quite a leap to the administrative world in a new district, Hack said.

“It’s been a huge learning curve,” he said. “I’m just learning what Warrior Run is all about.”

Hack enjoys working with middle school students because the students are at a crucial age in their development.

“They’re at such a point in their life that we can still assist them,” he said. “They’re still open to the real possibilities of education.”

Outside of the classroom, Hack is just as accomplished.

Graduating with a minor in music performance, Hack has served as the director of music for St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Bloomsburg for the past eight years, leading the church’s choirs and playing the organ.

Hack said it’s a busy life, but it brings him much fulfillment.

“I have the best of both worlds,” he said.

Hack has been married to his wife Danielle — a teacher in the Montgomery Area School District in Lycoming County — since 2008. The couple lives in Stillwater, Columbia County, with their golden retriever, Lily.

The Susquehanna Valley is a place that Hack said feels like home.

“The area of the Warrior Run community is very similar to where I grew up in Benton,” he said. “It still has the makings of a close-knit community. The school is still a central hub.”