Jessica Green

Jessica was born in Springfield, VT in 1973 and brought up outside Saratoga, NY.  She and her parents lived on their horse farm where her father raised standard-breed horses to race on tracks like the one that used to be so popular in Hinsdale, with drivers on a cart drawn by a racehorse. It was that track and the races her father was part of (as well as the fact that her grandparents had lived in Hinsdale for decades) that drew her, in the end, to Hinsdale.

After her family moved from Saratoga to Vermont, Jessica graduated from Leland and Gray High School (LGHS) in Townshend in 1992. In fact, while in middle school in Hinsdale, she subscribed to /Teen Beat Magazine and spotted an ad for pen-pals worldwide.  She wrote to one Sarah Pouzet, a student at Chez Capris in France. Sarah visited Jessica in Vermont in the summer of 1991; the following summer, Jessica lived with Sarah’s family in France. They still write to one another 35 years on. Three other experiences taught her a lot about what she might love to do as an adult. First, she volunteered her time as a student mentor with the Special Education teachers at LGHS. Second, she studied French there for three years with teacher Annie Souquet. Third, after her junior year in 1991, she went with World Learning (SIT) and - as an extension of that study - she lived in a town the size of Brattleboro - Tecamachalco, Mexico - for several weeks. All three experiences introduced her to the larger world.

All of this travel and personal links to people in Mexico and France caused her to realize travel and tourism was what she wanted to study. College now made sense to her. She joined twenty other students enrolled in a two-year course at Paul Smith College in upstate NY in Travel and Tourism. As part of that course, in the summer of 1993, she signed up for an internship with Lyon Travel, then run by Jill Potter on Eliot Street in Brattleboro. During that time, her links to the area remained strong: “My grandparents Mary and Clarence Howe had lived in Hinsdale for decades, so they kept me linked to the Brattleboro/Hinsdale area.” In 1994, I got my two-year degree in Travel and Tourism. It was exactly what I needed.”

“With my degree in hand, I moved to Albany, NY to work for the Liberty Travel Company. I loved the work but I missed Hinsdale. My family was here. At this point, my Dad was a truck driver and my Mom worked with Vermont Nation al Bank in Brattleboro. I left Albany to live with my grandparents and got a job at Lyon Travel when Paul and Karen Gustafson were running it. I worked in their Leisure Department helping people with vacation plans from 1996-1998. Then I worked with Hank Lee, the owner of Gateway Travel, also in Brattleboro for three years.

“By 2000 I had travelled extensively to learn what a professional travel agent offers clients: about hotels and places of interest throughout the Caribbean, across Europe, to Disneyworld in Florida, even to Hong Kong.

“But in 1999, something very big changed. I met Josh Green in a Yahoo chat room. Incredibly enough, he turned out to be living across the Connecticut River in Brattleboro. We got to know each other, married and have been together ever since. And his commitment to Hinsdale where we live blossomed: in 2023 he became the Community Development Coordinator for Hinsdale.

“In 2004 I signed on to work with Hank Lee, the owner of Gateway Travel, along with Linda Evans and Marj Wright. I was happily back in travel. Around 2014, Hank retired and my husband Josh and I bought the agency. But in travel, EVERYTHING WAS CHANGING. Computers came in big-time and travel sites like Expedia began to take even more work away from me. We found we needed a physical office less and less. Our lease was running out on our office. We didn’t renew it. I’ve worked from home ever since. Then COVID in 2020-2022 took a further toll on travel. People were staying closer to home. Travellers became less adventurous. Online booking became more and more popular. My phone rang less and less.

“Seeing so much changing in the world of travel even in 2019, I started substituting at the Hinsdale Middle and High Schools. I was happy working wherever the schools needed help. I realized I loved being around kids – memories of my love of being a Special Ed assistant as a student at Leland and Gray all those years ago began to surface. Josh got a job doing shipping and delivery for Side Hill Farm Jams and this part-time teaching was really grabbing hold of me. In 2021-2022, the Hinsdale school needed a long term substitute teacher in the Special Education Department.

“I went back to school so I could apply for a job like that. I enrolled in a flexible on-line University of New Hampshire teacher-training program in Special Education. I realized the Internet had been my foe as a travel agent and now was now my friend as a would-be teacher. And I knew on-line education as an adult would require self-discipline – something I had. After two years. I had my degree to become a Special Education Case Manager and Teacher.

“ I now work with fourteen students in the 8th and 9th grades, helping them make their transition from Middle School to High School. I help them with reading and writing skills and how to manage emotional disturbances, each with an Individual Education Plan (IEP), all in a school just a few miles from my home in Hinsdale Village.

“I’ve also meshed my student’s IEP’s with real-world experience, with the schools Extended Learning Opportunities program.  My students learn from on-the-job training while working at J&T Trailers in Winchester, The Humane Society in Brattleboro, The Brattleboro Reformer newspaper, Elite Vinyl, The Town of Hinsdale…. The kids go every day or three days a week for certain periods of time. I have to say this is all dear to my heart.

“ I still do a bit of travel consulting and I’m trying again to be elected in March to become a member of the Hinsdale Selectboard. (I tried two years ago and lost by six votes.) I’m also on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and oversee the Youth Recreation Leagues for K-6^th grade in basketball, soccer and cheerleading. I’m also Assistant Basketball Coach for the Middle School Special Ed Kids. Last week we drove an hour and twenty minutes in a school bus to play Hillsboro! We play Claremont next week.

“I love Hinsdale. We don’t have the businesses here like Brattleboro does. We’re quieter. Everyone looks out for each other. AND, we are close to Brattleboro via that magnificent new bridge.”