Over the years, many freshmen have walked through Coppell High School’s doors on the first day of school and walked out four years later older, wiser and ready to take on the world.
CHS has come a long way since its first graduating class of 23 students back in 1965. It has churned out top athletes, models and lawyers; doctors, actresses and journalists. Past Cowboys have left no road unmarked in their journey to do what they love, and love what they do.
Libby Davis graduated CHS in 2007 and is now a student at TCU and editor of its school newspaper, TCU Daily Skiff. Abigail Klein also graduated in 2007, and since then she has been a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and now is living in Los Angeles working towards being a model and actress.
Erin Leu graduated from CHS in 2002, the University of Texas in 2006 and Harvard in 2009. She is currently working in Dallas and is an attorney for Liberty Institute, a public-interest law firm that works to protect religious liberty and free speech.
All three of these women are on different paths and their interests could not be more different, but share one thing in common: they have all proudly worn the Cowboy colors.
Davis and Leu both agree that when it comes to college, students need to go into it with an open mind. Many students pass up opportunities to learn different things because they have their mind set on one major. College is a time for a student to explore options and find out what they are truly interested in.
“Expose yourself to all different fields of study,” Leu said. “College is a great time to figure out what you want to do with your life. I would also recommend taking time to do internships; they will give you great exposure to different career paths”
Leu started at UT as an electrical engineering major, but realized her interests didn’t lie in computer programming. When she went into law school she knew she wanted to work on constitutional law issues. Working for a public-policy group gave her the exposure she wanted to issues she truly cared about.
Coppell High school offers many programs and classes. Often times it’s difficult for high school students to wrap their minds around which classes are best and will ultimately land them into the college of their choice.
“The classes that stood out to me as especially helpful were the college-level classes like BC Calculus, Statistics, Economics and Challenge English, which all proved useful in college,” Leu said. “I would also say that CHS’s focus on AP classes was very beneficial; I was able to test out of 32 hours of college credit, which allowed me to enter UT as a sophomore and hit the ground running.”
In college, the expectations and workload can be much more stressful than in high school and the workload can change tremendously, especially for Davis who constantly has to write up to date articles on breaking news.
“We publish the paper Tuesday through Friday so we don’t have time to go over every article. We have to quickly turn around breaking news so it’s a lot more on the spot”, Davis said. “Instead of spending 30 to 40 minutes on busy work I am now doing 2 to 3 hours of homework for one singular class.”
But there are also many perks to the college experience. The range of activities, people and options you are exposed to in college far exceeds those in high school and makes the experience rich and rewarding.
“You make your own experiences,” Davis said. “The best thing is that I got involved in so many organizations my freshman year, then [narrowed] it down as you get older.
On the other side of the country, Klein took a less traditional route. Her last year to serve as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader was 2009. As a cheerleader, she got to meet many people that helped her make connections in Los Angeles. Even though she is new to modeling, she believes being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader has given her an advantage.
“Cheerleading has definitely helped me with modeling,” Klein said. “I had never [modeled] before I became a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader back in 2007. Taking cameo photos in uniform, as well as our annual swimsuit calendar shoot, really helped me gain experience.”
Just as Klein has been exposed to many different types of people and remarkable places, she has also had the opportunity to reach out to the pediatric patients at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and to travel to countries like Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan to encourage our soldiers and show them her support.
“Flying on Black Hawks, wearing bullet proof vests and visiting with so many incredible men and women in our military was an opportunity I would be honored to do again in a heartbeat,” Klein said. “Just when I thought I would be going overseas to help others feel a little more connected to home, the soldiers there made me feel overwhelmingly proud and truly grateful for our freedom here in the USA.”
Davis, Leu and Klein have all taken different paths since graduating CHS. However, whether its students go to a college 50 miles away, a thousand miles away or not at all, one thing remains the same: CHS challenges its students to achieve their goals and follow their dreams.
