When Gabi Brannon arrives at Community Christian School each morning to teach kindergarten, she sometimes thinks back to her own days as a kindergarten student at the same school.

“This is where God always called me — these walls built me,” admits Brannon, who returned to the school to teach kindergarten in the fall of 2025 after attending the school as a student from kindergarten to senior year in 2020. “It really is a home for me — it’s always been a home for me and there’s nothing that I love more. I asked God to use me and he gave me a classroom — it’s 100 percent where I need to be.”

Brannon, along with two other Community Christian alumni, will be teaching at the school during the 2025-2026 school year. “We have had alumni return to teach here, but this is the first time we have had three on staff at the same time,” says Elementary Principal Tammy Godfrey. “As a former teacher of two of the returning alumni, it is truly a blessing to be part of such a full-circle moment.”

Patience Ferguson, who attended Community Christian from 2008 to 2011 in high school, was on a different career path, studying international relations and then moving to the Bahamas, but found her way back to Georgia during COVID. “I went to church and I ran into Pastor Beau (Adams) and he said to come here,” recalls the now third-grade lead teacher. “It blossomed from there. I love being able to see them learn new things and I love being able to make learning fun for them.”

Fellow alum Cliff Richards says the experience is “surreal” sometimes. “It’s a great feeling being at my alma mater — I went from sitting in a classroom to now at a teacher’s desk,” admits the coach, who attended as a student from 2011 to 2014. “For now, I want to continue to be the best teacher I can be and be the best influence on these kids’ lives.”

He explains that the school is a small, tight-knit community that is one big family. “What an honor for our school and staff to watch our alumni pour into the lives of the next generation,” Godfrey adds. “There is something special about an alumnus returning and giving back to the school they graduated from. It is a testament to the impact our school and staff have had on their lives.”

By Michelle Floyd