Alyssa McKee

I would have to say, truly, the relationships and the people that have kind of paved the way for me. There have been multiple individuals through my college and then through my education career that have inspired me and have also believed in me. Really, the relationships and the experiences that I have had, both through my high school experience, have taught me a lot. And not always in a positive way - it's taught me a lot about what not to do, too, through my own experiences and how I felt when somebody said something a certain way, or somebody closed a door that should have been left open, that kind of thing. But definitely the people. The people, this business is a people business. It's all about human connection.

I'm thinking of several of my two past principals when I was first kind of in this career, and they really, early on, believed in me and gave me opportunities. Through working with them, one ended up hiring me as the assistant principal. He's no longer here, but he always focused on really trying to find opportunities and build opportunities for leadership for others. That's something that I've tried to take with me - just finding ways to empower the people that you work with and the others that are around you. It really does make a difference, and it makes them strive to be more and do more.

I think the best career advice that I would give is to make sure that you are following your North Star. For me, that's always been kids - helping them have a voice. Even with all the noise that sometimes comes with a career of any kind, but certainly a career in education, there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of changes that happen year to year to year. But just keep following, continuing to follow your North Star of what you know is right for kids.

I'm gonna start with opportunities. With all of the resources, all of the information at our fingertips, at young people's fingertips right now, with AI and with all the resources on the internet, all the things, there's just such an opportunity for our youth to learn and be able to do so much more than one ever has, right? But that also comes with some challenge, because it's also a lot easier to just find the answer without working through the process. So it's both a challenge and an opportunity. I would say all the AI and all of the information that we have accessible is both.

I think compassion immediately comes to mind as the number one thing, just remembering that everybody has a story. Also, finding humor and joy in the little things. Definitely humor is a big part of my life, because there's so many heavy things that I have to work through in my job, but finding the little things to laugh about, or the little things to find that are beautiful, or something that you can notice every day to kind of ground you, that's really important as well. And then just, again, just that connection, relationships, finding the good in others.