In the mid-1980s, Concord High School students watched as their social studies teacher became a household name. They saw Christa McAuliffe, 37, with Johnny Carson and in parades and newspapers.

"We were all very proud," said Joanne Walton, class of 1986. Proud, she added, but not surprised: "Because she was a treasure."

But at 11:40 a.m. on Jan. 28, 1986, the euphoria shattered. High above Florida's Kennedy Space Center, a fireball engulfed the space shuttle Challenger. White smoke shot in two directions. The Challenger, with its seven crew members, plummeted to the ocean. McAuliffe, who was selected from 11,000 candidates to be the nation's first teacher in space, died.

But her legacy didn't. McAuliffe left a crop of aspiring teachers. Inspired as much by McAuliffe's field trips and infectious smile as by her ascent to stardom, many of her former students – now the age McAuliffe was when she donned NASA blue – have followed in her footsteps.

After the initial, cutting horror of the Challenger disaster began to lift, many of McAuliffe's students say they took a simple message from her life and death: Do what you love. For many, that meant teaching.

Some moved to their new profession quickly.

Scott Reynolds was a junior the year of the Challenger disaster. He dreamt of becoming a professional hockey player and making money. He planned to study business. But McAuliffe's death changed his ambitions.

"The year following her accident," Reynolds said, he had "a re-evaluation of what were valuable professions. . . . It was me thinking about what she had tried to do." Today, Reynolds teaches two Advanced Placement science courses at St. Paul's School. He was the first member of his family to graduate from college.

Some took more circuitous routes.

Like Reynolds, Holly Merrow came from a family without much experience in higher education. She worked her way through college and, after graduating, focused on making money. But after nine years as a stockbroker, McAuliffe's message echoed in her mind.

"She taught me that you can do all kinds of things and make all kinds of money, but when you end your life, what was important to you? I probably did decide to pursue teaching because of her influence," said Merrow, who graduated in 1986. She now teaches fourth grade in Brunswick, Maine.

For others, McAuliffe's influence on their profession was less direct. But it was there.

"A lot of my friends ended up doing something in teaching or education. Is that Christa? Is that the ethos of our education? Is that Concord?" said Megan Raymond, a 1987 graduate who works in outreach at the University of Virginia. "We all ended up being civically minded. Maybe that's just sort of Christa's spirit."

'We were people and not students'

McAuliffe wasn't afraid to put textbooks aside. She loved field trips, bringing speakers to class and using anecdotes to make a point. Her classes, students said, were anything but boring.

Audra Beauvais, who graduated in 1986, took The American Woman, a class McAuliffe developed, in her junior year. "It was run more like a college course. It was much more interactive." Beauvais is principal of the Vivian E. Hussey primary school in Berwick, Maine. In 1986, she attended the Challenger launch with her father, Mark Beauvais, then superintendent of Concord schools.

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