Karalee, a Utah native, has been married for 22 years and has three kids. She is a very outdoorsy person who loves to hike, ski, and travel. Her favorite place she has traveled to is Egypt!
Karalee got married right out of High School and didn't have the opportunity to go to college until the age of 40, after solely being a mother for many years. Karalee is a first-generation student and will be the first person in her family to graduate college!
When asked what inspired her to be a teacher, she responded: “I was working as a reading intervention aid in an elementary school and I knew I wanted to do something like that. I recognized that reading was a foundation skill of life. I could see the difference between the teachers that would teach the foundations effectively and those who didn't, and I decided I wanted to be that difference.” Karalee is very passionate about these foundational principles because she knows they will set her students up for success throughout their entire life.
She hopes that her students will know two things while she teaches them: for them to know that they are valued as individuals and that she is there to help them progress.
Although many people have asked her "why she wants to go to school to become a babysitter?" She confidently responds by saying that she sees this differently, as an opportunity and not a burden. She has a strong passion for helping the youth learn and progress and is eager to get into the classroom.
As a future educators, we know teaching is much more complex and nuanced than "babysitting." It takes skilled educators, such as Karalee will be, to help students form a foundation of knowledge that will unlock many future opportunities for growth and development in this life and in the Eternities. If you are interested in working with young children and would like to learn about the Early Childhood Education program, you can sign up to meet with an ambassador here! Or, review other blog posts about the Early Childhood program.
