Asbury Educator of the Month: Michelle Kelly
Step into Counselor Michelle Kelly’s office at Bourbon Middle School and feel yourself relax as soothing music drifts from a speaker behind her desk.
The overhead lighting is switched off in favor of strands of soft lights hanging from the ceiling and over a tree in the corner.
A curtain depicting a Zen garden adorns one wall near a fireplace that sits across from a couch covered with pillows and stuffed animals. A sign over the door whispers: “Because Nice Matters.”
The smell of essential oils wafts through the room. Baskets of hand toys and stress balls for fidgety students, and games for play therapy are tucked into every corner.
“Everything is here for a reason,” Kelly says. “When students walk in they are mesmerized at first and then they relax. When they walk in here, everything else stays out there.”
Kelly has established a comfortable, safe place where students can calm down, listen and express their emotions. Her room is a sanctuary, a no-judgment zone where honesty and transparency prevail.
After 17 years as a school counselor (and 27 as an educator), Kelly is a master of establishing rapport and earning trust. An at-risk child herself, she exudes empathy.
“She has a natural feel for kids and a knack for knowing what every kid needs,” Principal Travis Earlywine said. “She cares for the students and it comes from her heart.”
In 2000, Kelly was nominated by students and won a local education award. One student wrote: “When I walk into her room, I feel like a person.”
“That will always stay with me because that’s what I want students to feel,” Kelly said.
Kelly, who has climbed to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and biked the coast of Maine, spent the first part of her career as a language arts teacher. When then Principal Carol Christian offered her the school counselor position (by then she had earned her master’s degree in counseling), Kelly wasn’t sure she was ready and balked at first. But after a weekend of prayer, she accepted the job.
“My goal is to empower students to be resilient and self-sufficient,” she said. “To give them the skills to control their emotions so they can take on anything that’s thrown at them.”
NOMINATIONS: Asbury University’s School of Education, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees for young adults and working professionals in Kentucky and around the world, is pleased to honor world-class educators throughout Kentucky. If you would like to nominate an educator, contact Asbury University’s School of Education at AUSOE@asbury.edu.