After years of dedicated work, treasurer Penny Hedrick is retiring from WHHS, bringing a close to a 25-year career in public service, including three years at Walnut.
Hedrick attended Taylor High School, where she played volleyball, golf, basketball and softball.
She was also in the band all four years of high school, where she played the trumpet. Her love for the instrument began in fifth grade after watching Dizzy Gillespie perform on 60 Minutes.
“I wasn’t really a good high school student; I didn’t really get studying and that,” Hedrick said. “Back when I was in school, they kind of routed students: either you’re academic or more set for trades careers.”
Yet, math always held a special place in Hedrick’s heart; at least, before the equations started to look strange.
“I had a good fifth-grade teacher who was so good at teaching math,” Hedrick said. “I loved math until they started putting the alphabet in, but she had this method with multiplication, and it’s getting those basic tools that matter.”
Growing up as a lifelong Cincinnatian, she also attended the University of Cincinnati.
“I just went to college because they told me I wasn’t college material; I’m one of those people who like to prove you wrong,” Hedrick said.
Hedrick began in Hamilton County as an eligibility worker, where she provided people with food stamps and medical care.
From there, her career quickly expanded. One of her roles was as a Consumer Services Officer, working in the complaints department.
She later became an adoption and foster care recruiter, where she managed websites and produced commercials to encourage others to become foster or adoptive parents.
Before leaving that department, she joined the Communications team, where she met her current colleague and friend, Shelli Daniels.
Hedrick continued to grow in her career, working for the Court of Common Pleas as a jury clerk and project assistant. She then began her next chapter at Cincinnati Public Schools, where she has worked for the past 11 years.
Before starting her full career, Hedrick picked up many part-time jobs during high school and after college, including a cook, bartender, auto parts counter worker and a DJ.
“I thought DJing was the best gig ever; you get to go out, play all the music and they pay you,” Hendrick said. “I loved music my whole life, [so] playing music and concerts, that’s probably why I can’t hear.”
In college, Hedrick ran the morning children’s programming at the Cincinnati PBS Station WCET Channel 48. She would manage The Teletubbies, Arthur and The Big Comfy Couch before heading out to class.
After Hedrick leaves WHHS, she plans on volunteering with the Salvation Army in Florida to help the homeless population. If not, she would also have an interest in helping at the food pantry up the street from her condo in Florida.
On top of that, she would also love to help rebuild the reefs.
“You can help try to build these domes, part of the Tampa Bay watch or something. I plan on joining that.” Hedrick said.
Hedrick also plans on staying active. She enjoys taking her pilates classes and would love to complete 25 pushups and at least one pullup.
Hedrick’s motto is to work hard and play harder, which certainly describes the energy she has put into her career and the results she gets out of it. Her final advice to students is to save.
“I’m leaving the workforce at sixty; that’s early,” Hedrick said. “Any chance you have, to where someone will match funds for you, invest. That’s free money, and that’s how you build. Save. Invest.”