Kate McElderry

I attribute my success to the dedicated educators in my life--some taught me formally and others informally as mentors. I also attribute my success to a genuine love for teaching, collaborating and sharing. I’m deeply passionate about understanding how each child learns, helping them thrive and become their best self. Their success if my success! I channel that same passion into writing too. At the heart of it all, is curiosity, hard work, and a love for learning, sharing and storytelling. This is what has guided my journey.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is to "stay jazzed and keep learning." Along those lines, author, Camron Wright has a beautiful line in 'The Rent Collector,' that says, "Be patient. Learning is a lifelong affair." These are profound words that remind me that staying jazzed means getting excited, being curious, and adopting a growth mindset. This has been wonderful advice because it inherently implies that we follow a passion and know our purpose. Being grounded in the latter can keep us truly excited and motivated about career and life. When we aim to be jazzed, growth, learning, and impact naturally follow.

Think about your career (and life) as a unique and highly personal journey, rather than a linear path. Strive to find your voice, your lens, your strengths, and as you proceed in career and life, don't necessarily think up, but instead out. Expand yourself and keep growing. As you follow your own path, remember to take time for pause. Pause honors process. It allows time to digest, reflect, rest, recharge, and create. Pause to take time for yourself, your friends and loved ones. Not only is career success (often) nonlinear, but it is also not a race. It's a journey and one to be enjoyed.

It terms of education, one of the biggest opportunities right now is building strong networks and collaborations. This is one of the reasons that educational outreach programs can be so powerful. Connecting with other educators, organizations, and communities allows us to share best practices, expand resources, and create more inclusive, effective learning experiences for all students. This means creating greater accessibility to those in need of greater support and services. Regarding challenged and opportunities in the field of writing, we are at an interesting crossroads. Here is my personal stance on AI etc. I love seeing writers, perhaps neurodivergent ones, who may struggle with grammar and spelling skills, use technology to help them share their voice and ideas. (They might not otherwise share in the form of written expression--and yet they should if they are inclined.) So my view is one of "additive" vs. "subtractive" in terms of technology. AI should not replace. I am a believer in human creativity and the uniqueness of one's own idea generation. As a writer and educator, alike there is no substitute for what we as humans come up with. To use AI/ technology in general to support is what it is there for.

In both my work and personal life, I value curiosity, creativity, and connection. Connection is a powerful notion, and I mean it in the fullest sense. Connection to our purpose, connection to the information we are learning and impart, connection to those we work with, alongside, and for. Connection is what we are wired for; that and conversation, storytelling, and community. These things are absolutely related and are a beautiful confluence in my work, in my writing and classroom too. I strive to approach education and collaboration with an open mind and a spirit of joy and exploration, much like I do in my personal hobbies—whether it’s cooking for family and friends, riding my bicycle on a new route, enjoying the arts, reading a new book, or hiking up a mountain. These activities remind me to balance focus and joy, fostering growth and meaningful connections in everything I do.