Full Circle:
ZCHS Graduate Returns to Where It All Began
Annie Leonard’s journey has taken her around the world and right back home to her Zionsville roots.
When Pleasant View Elementary School preschool teacher Annie Leonard steps into her classroom each morning, she sees her own story reflected in each of her students. A 2019 graduate of Zionsville Community High School, Annie followed her passion for education from Indiana University to an international school in Taiwan, where she taught for two years. In this video, she shares how her experiences abroad, and the teachers who once shaped her right here in ZCS, continue to guide her as she inspires a new generation of learners.
The story of a Zionsville graduate whose journey around the world led her back to ZCS full of gratitude, purpose, and a belief in the power of laughter and love in the classroom.
Journey Around the World Leads Her Home
Across cultures and classrooms, Annie Leonard has discovered that laughter and love are at the heart of learning
Full Circle: Leading Students in the Place Where Her Story Began
When Annie Leonard walks through the halls of Pleasant View Elementary each morning, she’s surrounded by something both new and familiar, the warmth of coming home.
A 2019 graduate of Zionsville Community High School, Leonard has come full circle, returning to the school district that once shaped her as a student and now in her role leading a preschool classroom.
For Leonard, returning to Zionsville is a new chapter in a familiar book. The faces are different, but the heart of the district, a sense of belonging, curiosity, and care, is just as she remembered.
After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in elementary education, Leonard accepted her first teaching position at an international school in Taiwan. For two years, she taught young students who were just beginning to learn English.
“Every day was a reminder that connection doesn’t depend on language,” she said. “Even when words failed, laughter and kindness always reached my students.”
The experience shaped her both as a teacher and as a person. She learned the importance of patience, empathy, and meeting students where they are.
“You don’t have to speak the same language to experience laughter and love,” she said. “My students could come to school with a smile because they felt safe and cared for, even though we came from very different places in the world.”
Coming back to ZCS, Leonard was no longer a student but was now guiding young minds from the front of the classroom.
“It’s surreal,” she said. “Some days I look around and think, this is where I learned how to learn.”
Leonard’s roots in Zionsville run deep. She attended Stonegate Elementary School as part of its first kindergarten-through-fourth-grade class when the school opened in 2005. She still remembers the excitement of market day and learning about Zionsville history, lessons her mother once came in to help teach.
“It’s so special to be back and see those same traditions still happening,” Leonard said. “Those experiences were core memories for me, and now I get to help create them for my students.”
She also carries with her the lessons of two of the many ZCS educators who made a lasting impact. Her kindergarten teacher, Diane Herbst, had “the kindest heart and kindest eyes,” Leonard recalled. Before she left for Taiwan, the two reconnected for breakfast at Rosie’s.
“It was incredible to sit across from the woman who taught me when I was five, as I was about to start teaching my own students,” she said.
Middle school teacher Liz Ferrand also left a lasting impression.
“I always struggled with math, but she made it hands-on and fun,” Leonard said. “I still remember her doing a handstand to show how reciprocal fractions flip over. I’ll never forget that.”
Leonard’s desire to teach began her senior year at Zionsville Community High School when she joined the Peer Facilitating program, mentoring younger students in elementary classrooms.
“When I stepped back into an elementary school, I just knew,” she said. “That’s where I wanted to be. Helping children grow and learn the way my teachers did for me.”
Now back home, Leonard is grateful for the community that supported her as a student and now embraces her as an educator.
“Community is so important,” she said. “Zionsville has so many ways to get involved and connect. It’s a special place to come home to.”
She’s also found ways to continue growing outside the classroom, reconnecting with old friends and even taking a pottery class at the SullivanMunce Cultural Center.
“It’s been really nice to find new ways to be part of the community again,” she said.
As she looks ahead, Leonard hopes her students will carry with them the same sense of curiosity, confidence, and care that Zionsville gave her.
“Education is so much more than academics,” she said. “It’s about relationships, compassion, and knowing that laughter and love can change the course of a day, or a life.”
For Annie Leonard, that’s the beauty of coming home. Supporting learning in the very place that once taught her the power of connection.
“Education is so much more than academics,” she said. “It’s about relationships, compassion, and knowing that laughter and love can change the course of a day, or a life.”
Annie Leonard, 2019 ZCHS Graduate
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