Alumna to Francis Howell High, Anastasia Hercules is a new teacher here at FHN. She teaches U.S. History and Contemporary Issues. Her favorite part about FHN is how diverse the student body is. 

“I would say what I really appreciate about North is it’s a lot more diverse than [Francis Howell High],” Hercules said. “But yeah, the student body is just a lot more diverse, which I like. I feel like it’s always a great benefit to be around people that aren’t like yourself.”

Hercules enjoys teaching U.S. History and Contemporary Issues because of her motive to make people’s stories be told.

“I always try to give voices to the voiceless. So those people that are often not talked about in history, I want to make sure that their story is told. I feel like that’s the job of a good social studies teacher,” Hercules said. 

Although Hercules used to be a world history teacher, she enjoys teaching her subjects to the FHN students that take her class. 

“But I really like teaching U.S. History because I think more Americans need to know about their country and their background. I really like teaching contemporary issues because we can talk about what students want to talk about, like things that are really relevant to our life and culture today,” Hercules said.

Even though Hercules hasn’t lived in Missouri her whole life, she had a pretty normal St. Charles County childhood until her parents moved her to the ‘middle of nowhere’ in Indiana.

“I kind of didn’t know any of the rest of the world living in St. Charles, everyone was so bored. There’s nothing to do here.  And then I moved to Indiana, where there’s really nothing to do. So glad to be back where there’s lots of diversity and opportunities and lots of cultural events. So I think that sometimes growing up in the St. Louis area we take for granted, like how much opportunity is around us,” Hercules said.