Fountain Hills Unified School District’s goal is to prepare students to venture out and succeed in the world, but there is a fair share of successful graduates who have come back to their alma mater to help the next generation of Falcons soar.

Currently, there are 10 staff members working across the three FHUSD campuses who attended the district when they were students.

This is the fourth article in a series profiling the FHUSD staff who returned to the nest.

Jeffery Bonner

Fountain Hills High School security guard and basketball head coach, Jeffery Bonner, said he wasn’t too excited when his family moved to Fountain Hills his freshmen year of high school. After all, the soon-to-be class of 2012 graduate had moved a lot in his life.

“(The move) was different,” Bonner said. “We moved so much when I was a kid in Texas, we probably moved like seven or eight times just before eighth grade. So I told my dad I’m not helping you move anything this time. I don’t want to go, I will stay with my grandparents if need be.

“My dad came back from Arizona with a U-Haul and we drove back together after he made me pack. He talked to me the whole way back about how this move was going to be for the better.”

Looking back at it now, Bonner agrees that it was for the better, for him and his whole family. After all, it was at FHHS that he found his love of basketball.

“I switched over to basketball and I fell in love my freshmen summer leading into my sophomore year,” Bonner said. “It was my segue into meeting all of my friends. It was the path I chose to make a name for myself in the community.”

Bonner was a part of a region championship Falcon team and went on to play the game in college. Bonner could have pursed playing basketball further but had aspirations for other things.

“I always knew I wanted to coach; at what level I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure it out,” Bonner said. “I really have fallen in love with high school. I want to be capable to coach at any level but I also want to choose which level because I care about the kid and the community.”

Gianna Wilson

Gianna Wilson has lived in Fountain Hills her whole life and, if she can help it, she is never leaving.

Wilson graduated with the FHHS class of 2009 after attending Four Peaks and the Middle School on FHHS campus.

Currently Wilson works at FHHS and FHMS as the dance and cheer teacher.

It was during her time at FHUSD that Wilson discovered her love for dance.

“I started to dance competitively in middle school, that’s where I started to take it seriously and compete” Wilson explained. “Then when I got to high school I was in the program there and that is when I figured out that I wanted to teach.”

With a new goal of teaching dance Wilson went on the college knowing that Fountain Hills had to cut the dance program that she had grown up in.

“Ever since I graduated college with my degree it was my goal to bring dance [back] to FHUSD,” Wilson said. “I would always come up and talk to the principals and ask, ‘is this possible, I have my degree, can I start a program,’ and eventually it worked.”

For Wilson it was a bit of a trip her first year back to be working at her old school but she now loves having an extra way to connect with her students.

“I think it’s awesome to be back,” Wilson said. “I love being able to tell my students I performed on this exact gym floor. I performed on that football field. Like, I have been in your shoes before. I have walked these halls just like you are now.”