Meet Alexandra Haan! Alexandra is the middle of 5 kids, all of whom graduated from CC. Her dad, Pat Haan, also graduated from CC in 1981, and her mom, Traci Haan, taught at CC for 23 years.
Alexandra graduated CC in 2012 where she participated in soccer, basketball, and softball. After high school, she went to Purdue University where she majored in Agricultural Systems Management and minored in Crop Science and AgBusiness. She graduated from Purdue in 2016, and then moved to Northwest Indiana to work for Cargill as a Production Supervisor. She managed a grain elevator that stored 7 million bushels of grain and shipped grain all over the world via ships, barges, rail, and truck.
After managing that facility for about 3 years, Alexandra earned the opportunity to manage a second location about an hour away. She was the only supervisor at Cargill in her region that managed two facilities. After working for Cargill for almost six years, Alexandra moved to Salisbury, Maryland to work for Perdue as their Continuous Improvement Manager. Her role with Perdue is to analyze their grain and crush elevators for opportunities to eliminate waste and run more efficiently. She visits 4 soybean crush facilities and about 30 grain elevators.
Alex is also an entrepreneur. In 2017, Alex channeled her creative energy into her own business - HAANmade Treasures - making candles and jewelry. Channeling her day job in agriculture, she pours her candles in soy wax. The scents of her candles change throughout the seasons, and she also carries a line of coffee scented candles that look like treats. You can check out her treasures at haanmadetreasures.com or follow her artistic process on Instagram @haanmadetreasures.
In her free time, she likes to go home and visit her family (when she can), go camping, hiking, ride jet skis, and hang out with her boyfriend, Aaron.
How did your education at LCSS prepare you for college and your career?
Central Catholic, and my parents, definitely taught me the importance of hard work and dedication. School was something I always had to try a little harder at than the others, and the Catholic school system gave me the resources I needed to succeed. Before working for Cargill as a supervisor, I had never been to a grain elevator, let alone knew how one ran, in my life. I didn’t let that stop me, I kept pushing through no matter how impossible it seemed to understand how everything worked. I believe my teachers and coaches taught me the importance of persevering.
How did LCSS help to shape your faith?
LCSS taught me the importance of morals and guiding principles, and to live those out every single day. I was lucky to have great role models in my parents, my aunts and uncles, teachers and coaches, and even my friends’ parents. It wasn’t until I got into the “real world”, that I realized not everyone was as blessed as I had been to have had the foundation I had growing up. It really opened my eyes and I’ve had more appreciation of the Catholic school system throughout my years.
What did you like the most about your experience at LCSS?
One of my favorite things about Central Catholic was that I was able to have my mom as my math teacher for 3 years. She was my 7th & 8th grade teacher, and then when I went into 9th grade, she took the 9th grade Algebra teacher position. I always had people tell me how great of a teacher my mom was, and I loved that I got to see it firsthand.
Describe one of your favorite memories of LCSS.
Battle of the Classes! I think that was the best day of the year for a lot of the students. It was so much fun to go head-to- head with other classes. It was also pretty amazing to see how involved and dedicated the teachers were to make sure we all had a great time.
