How many people can say that they’ve had occupations ranging from dorm kitchen duty at University of Michigan to stock girl at Crowley’s department store to CIA intelligence officer? Hereford High School Social Studies teacher Terese Trebilcock has had a whirlwind of a life, but has known since childhood that her true calling was teaching.

As an adolescent, Trebilcock played school with her sisters. They created a classroom in her basement complete with a handed-down blachboard and retro wooden folding desks.

“My parents just thought, oh this will be good for them to do homework, but we always had so much fun with it,” Trebilcock said.

As a young adult Trebilcock worked as a cashier, a bank teller, and dusted clothing stores. While working alongside a law professor, she decided she “would never file another paper again.” So she studied at University of Michigan, majoring in political science and minoring in economics.

“I thought I was going to be a big international something-something-something,” Trebilcock said.

Her prediction wasn’t too far off. She became a CIA intelligence officer who compiled information from the NSA, spies, and newspapers and analyzed it to evaluate the implications it would have on the United States. She used her ability to speak French, Spanish, and English to her advantage as she worked in the Latin American branch.

After years working with the CIA, she settled down, had two boys, and made a lifestyle choice to move to Pennsylvania and become a high school teacher.

“High school is much more exciting and unpredictable than the CIA,” Trebilcock said.

She says that sometimes she walks out of the school thinking no one could ever force her to come back. But the next day, a student always does something to make her smile, share a kind word, or teach her something new and it makes it all worth it.

After a life filled with experiences some people could only dream of, Terese Trebilcock wound up exactly where she wanted to be: a high school teacher, a mother of grown sons and a wife to a husband she “can’t not be with.”

Students in Introduction to Journalism interviewed Social Studies teacher Terese Trebilcock during a mock press conference Dec. 1. The journalists practiced drafting and asking interview questions and synthesizing their notes into articles. Emma Charles’ (’19) draft is featured here.

Social Studies teacher Terese Trebilcock answers journalism students’ questions during a mock press conference. “Teaching is much more exciting and unpredictable than any other job I’ve had,” she said.