LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Kelly Young was nominated by a member of her family, Anna Young.

Ms. Young has just begun her ninth year of teaching in San Diego Unified. Ever since she started teaching it's been clear that it's exactly the path she was meant to take. Anna sent all three of her children through private schools growing up, and none of them, including Ms. Young, ever had a teacher who was as dedicated, passionate, and involved as she is for all of her kids.

The level of involvement that has been taken to create an environment that children want to be in is extremely apparent. Her classroom, also known as the "53rd Queendom," is unrecognizable from three years ago; it went from drab and dirty, to "fab and nerdy," as she would tell you.

As an avid Harry Potter fan, Ms. Young rewards students with house points and games of Quidditch. Additionally, she stresses the importance of teamwork amongst peers. Bulletin boards of academic strategies are never the same year to year, as she firmly believes that every class she gets is unique, requiring their own learning experience. Her curriculum is never the same, as she takes great care to plan out every single subject based on the needs of her students.

"Before the school year even begins, she'll tell me all about her incoming class; their strengths, weaknesses, and even the previous year's test scores and reading levels," Anna said. "I'm completely blown away by the level of knowledge she has on her incoming classes, and I know the parents in her room appreciate her attention to academic detail so early in the year."

Ms. Young's dedication to creating a positive classroom environment has even begun to trickle out of her room and down the upper grade hallway. Last year, she rallied staff and parents to assist her in "nerdifying the hallway." What was once about as drab and dirty as her classroom, now looks like the starting level of Super Mario Brothers. With the help of a colleague, she and her team of enthusiastic individuals added extra bulletin boards to display student work, and used the industrial atmosphere of old pipelines and handrails to channel the world of Mario. She was so excited about the hallway, and would often talk about how each classroom had a green door that represented a pipe. Each pipe would lead students to a new academic adventure just by crossing the threshold.

The hallway is Ms. Young's visual reminder to the Lindbergh Schweitzer family of all that she does for her school. She is on countless committees such as SGT, PTA, SDEA, ILT, and many more. Ms. Young continued to stay involved with her school, even while pursuing a Master's degree. After completing her Master's from USD this year, where she obtained a 4.0 GPA, she opted to take on the GATE leadership role at her school, and is also helping the district screen a new science curriculum. She attends every after school event, and loves to participate in all school activities.

"We have the great fortune of living close by, so my husband and I tend to go see her at carnivals, craft fairs, and movie nights," Anna said. "To watch her interact with families is one of the most rewarding elements of watching her work. She knows every single child's name and their parents, and even remembers students from years ago."

Last year, Ms. Young went above and beyond when she obtained approval to have LSE become a National Elementary Honor Roll Society school. She single-handedly paid for, created, and managed the entire Honor Roll committee for both classes of fourth and fifth grade students. For all three grading periods, she made sure students who worked hard to earn their grades were publicly recognized and rewarded, even if it meant using part of her income to do so.

Being a National Elementary Honor Roll Society School is a big deal because it revolves around a huge service learning project required by the end of the year. Every year, Ms. Young runs a book drive through the Harry Potter Alliance called Accio Books. For the last six years, she has managed to collect around 50,000 books or more for various organizations, from a disadvantaged community in Chicago to a school that was being built in Uganda. She works alongside the Los Angeles Harry Potter Alliance, and for the entire month of April and May, she counts, organizes, and packs boxes of books for children and adults. She teaches her children the importance of charity and giving back to the community when others have nothing. 

On a professional level, Ms. Young continually makes her mother proud. She has been evaluated eight of her nine years of teaching, but not because she has to be. She welcomes the feedback from her administrators and feels that the goal setting on a yearly basis helps her become a better educator. Her actions always stem from a place of care and improvement, ensuring the students she interacts with are always getting the best quality and most well rounded education possible. Ms. Young has received exceeding expectations reviews from various administrators and has been nominated for Teacher of the Year multiple times. She has no desire to win for the sake of winning; her hope is that a win would bring honor and recognition to her school, and perhaps even improve the school's enrollment. Ms. Young's dream career would entail teaching students during the day, and venturing off to a university to educate future teachers at night. She is working on pursuing a PhD to make this dream come true. 

Ms. Young's school boasts one of the highest populations of Special Education students in all of San Diego Unified. She has spent the last four years collecting data, hoping that her efforts would help ensure that these students wouldn't have to be placed in combination classes. Her campus has 450 students, and the percentage of students on an IEP has climbed to nearly 25%.

"The stories she tells me of student successes have nearly brought me to tears, especially when she tells me that her class of 34 has anywhere from 7-15 IEPs, well over the 20% limit for requiring outside resources," Anna said. "Kelly never complains, and works tirelessly to create lessons to help students reach their full potential and establish a foundation to ensure a life long love for learning."

"While I may be biased as her mother to say she's amazing, the amount of parents who I know would support me in nominating Ms. Young for this award would simply be mindblowing," Young said. "I've had several parents over the years sit down with me at various events and have them share how my daughter has forever changed their child's life. If you ask her what her favorite thing about being a teacher is, she'll tell you every time that it's getting to see her kids after they've graduated and moved on to middle school, high school, and college. I've simply never seen a teacher care so much about their students that they arrange meetings with them and their parents to help with college advice, job resumes, and a much-needed motivational talk.  As her mother, I don't think there's anything she could do that would make me prouder than watching her thoroughly love the work that she does."

For Ms. Young, teaching isn't just a job, but a calling. She simply will not rest until she knows her kids are meeting and exceeding their full potential.