From Westbrook Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute, Helen Spaulding went to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where she was first assistant in the high school.
When Westbrook Seminary principal Rev. Sullivan Holman McCollester was called to be the first president of Buchtel College, founded in Akron, Ohio, in 1870, Helen Spaulding became Buchtel's chair of English literature, a position she held for three years.
Several years later she accepted a similar position at Portland (Oregon) High School where she taught for 13 years.