Rose comes full circle, returns to HHS after 43 years

Austin Swift

Steve Rose is now teaching at HHS.

Austin Swift, Print Editor-in-Chief
January 13, 2016

HHS alumni Steve Rose has gone full circle, returning as a substitute teacher 43 years after graduating.

“I was at Harrisonburg High school class of ‘72. I wrestled my senior year as a 126 pounder, so I was a small guy,” Rose said. “I was mainly track, cross country, indoor track and actually I had the indoor mile and two mile record and the outdoor two mile record back then.”

Rose developed an interest in foreign affairs during college and went on to visit 36 different countries.

“After high school I went to the University of Richmond and I got there on academics, not because of any good sports. At the University of Richmond I did political science, where I found an interest in international relations,” Rose said. “I’ve always been interested in foreign countries and travel and the UN. I studied a lot of the UN and different agencies and European economics and governance and stuff.”

During his studies he found a particular interest in the United Nations, but was unable to immediately apply his knowledge after graduation and decided to return to college to pursue an alternate career path.

“We learned about how [the UN] got formed, about its members, the political [aspects]. I did political science and there’s a lot of politics and things and a lot of government [in the UN]. I graduated from the University of Richmond [after] four years, and I got out and didn’t really get a job right away,” Rose said. “I went back and went to VCU and studied programming and got a Certificate of Information. So actually I was a [computer] programmer for 18 years. And worked with good confidence; computer sciences, federal reserve banks, a couple trucking companies.”

Rose decided to study abroad where he received an up-close look at the UN and gained valuable experience in foreign society.  

“I lived six months in Geneva, Switzerland, where I studied the European economic community, common market, the UN. I was in New York City for two weeks, studying the UN and then half the UN is in Geneva,” Rose said. “All my classes were mainly [in] French and I had only had a semester of French before I left, so only three months of French my sophomore year. So when I got there I couldn’t really speak much French.”

One of his favorite experiences came from the relationships he developed with students studying abroad from different countries.

“I lived in a dormitory with the University of Geneva because I was going there as a student, with an international student ID card and stuff. My roommates were Turkish guys from Istanbul. I had my group [of American students] all formed up, we lived together in all different apartments around the city. I said ‘no offense, but I’m not going to Europe to live with Americans’ so I split off from the group and lived in a dorm with these 44 kids from all over the world, mainly Spanish. Only two girls spoke a little bit of English, but everyone else didn’t speak and English. So whenever I got in big time trouble I talked to them,”

Rose was eager to take advantage of his time in Europe and didn’t hesitate to travel beyond his school in Geneva and experience different cultures within the continent.

“I had a class Thursday night that ended at 10:00, and because I had never been to Europe what I did was I would go down to the train station and whichever train was pulling out at 10:00 or 10:30 or 10:15, the first one moving, I’d throw my duffle bag on, jump on and go to sleep and then the next morning I’d wake up and I’d be in France or Germany or Austria or Spain or Italy.”