By Jack Reinhard | Facebook: @JohnJackReinhard

For almost 50 years now, Warren County Technical School (Warren Tech) in Washington, New Jersey has provided thousands of students with trade degrees and certificates. Geta Vogel has served as the school’s principal for a little over half of those years and is now retiring.

Mrs. Vogel, as students call her, has been walking through the front door of Warren Tech since 1992. During her time at Warren Tech, the school has expanded its campus, added a variety of trade programs, and had countless students compete and succeed in trade competitions at the state and national levels.

Vogel has always wanted a career in education since the age of four. “I wanted to be around kids. I used to walk around my neighborhood and collect kids and we’d play school in my house and they loved it because we had fun. I would give out lollipops; my goodness there I was already with rewards,” Vogel said as she laughed. “I knew at that point that I wanted to be a teacher.”

Vogel would go on to be a teacher in English and special education followed by time on a child study team. Eventually she made the transition from the classroom to the world of administration. Though she may have been an administrator for many years, Vogel said she continued to use a lot of her teaching skills to this day.

“I think my first love is teaching. Once a teacher always a teacher, it’s my favorite profession in the entire world. My secretary tells me every day that I’m teaching, so the transition maybe hasn’t occurred yet,” she said. “One thing that’s very important to me is that teachers understand how I feel about them and what their responsibilities are with respect to the profession, and for that I can say we have a group of people committed to what they have said they were going to do to educate our children. I can tell you they are all so dignified and they’re a pleasure.”

Even though Geta Vogel may be retiring, she said Warren Tech is only going to continue to thrive. “This school has grown exponentially. It’s a school growing in opportunities for students to envision their dreams,” she said.

Dreams came true for 106 graduates this year, and they did not forget who helped get them there as they gave Mrs. Vogel countless amounts of hugs and farewell wishes after the graduation ceremony.