Christiane Irvin
/age: 38 | Alumni, Recruitment and Marketing Coordinator | Texarkana Arkansas School District
As a lifelong resident of Texarkana, Arkansas, graduate of Arkansas High School and Texas A&M-Texarkana, Christiane Irvin considers it very rewarding to be the Alumni, Recruitment andMarketingCoordinatorforTexarkana Arkansas School District magnet programs. She loves educating families about the many wonderful magnet school opportunities available in TASD. She explains, “I digitally design, create and publish unique images and publications to establish a communication network to effectively recruit students to our magnet schools. I oversee the TASD Montage Project publications, social media pages and marketing and recruitment office. You will often see me on one of our magnet school campuses preparing for an event, recording the great things happening, or cheering on our talented students! My job is fun!”
Entering into her 16th year in education, Christiane Irvin has been a part of TASD since the conception of its magnet programs. She has taught fourth grade, first grade and also served as Instructional Facilitator, Magnet Coordinator, teacher mentor and lead teacher. She enjoys seeing former students succeed both academically and socially at the high school and collegiate levels. “I love witnessing them working, volunteering and establishing roots in our community,” she says. “Their success is my success!”
Best piece of advice:
“FIND JOY IN EVERYTHING YOU DO. YOUR JOB, RELATIONSHIPS, HOME ... IT’S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO LOVE IT OR TO CHANGE IT.” — JAMES COLLINS, CHRISTIANE’S GRANDFATHER
Married for almost 20 years to her husband, Brad, who serves as the TASD Director of School Safety, Christiane admits that they have experienced some of the greatest joys in raising their children (Carly, 13, and Collin, 6) and some of the greatest lows with her cancer battle, losing Brad’s mother to cancer and Christiane’s brother to suicide. “No matter how crazy my ideas are, how hard life gets, or what life is throwing at us, our little family takes it on together,” she acknowledges.
Christiane enjoys giving back to her community. She is involved with Hampton Church of Christ, Women for A&M-Texarkana, and Arkansas Women for Education. In the future, Christiane sees herself still contributing to the world of education and impacting children in some way. She cannot imagine herself doing anything else.
Name something about you that very few people know:
“I was adopted when I was 8 days old. There has never been a time in my life when I didn’t know I was adopted, that I was chosen by my parents to be their child. My birth mother was 16 years old, not ready to raise a child, but she was gracious enough to carry me for nine months and send me into the arms of my precious mother that had been waiting years for me.”