My name is Kelsey Altwater and I was born and raised in Kamloops, British Columbia. I started thinking that I would like to be a teacher when I was in grade 4, and the idea persisted on and off for many years. As I worked my way through high school, I thought about going into nursing or respiratory therapy because this what most of my friends were thinking about doing, but I was never interested enough to apply to either of the programs, and I decided to enroll myself in a Bachelor of Science at Thompson Rivers University in 2015. After my first year, I realized I wasn’t interested in sciences as much as I initially thought I was, so I decided to switch into a Bachelor of Arts. My goal at this point was to take as many different first-year classes and try to figure out what classes I was interested in, and then move forward from there. Because of this, I took everything from sociology to accounting and found that I really enjoyed the history and English classes I had taken, and I would pursue my degree moving in that direction. After a total of 3.5 years, I attained 90 credits and applied for the education program at TRU, and as of right now, I and finishing up my first year of the Bachelor of Education program.
January 2019, I began working for School District No.73 in the After School Sports and Arts Initiative (ASSAI) programs, where I facilitate 8-week visual art or movement programs at schools around Kamloops that have a need for free, extracurricular activities for their students. Through this job, I have had the opportunity to attend workshops and webinars, as well as hands-on experience working with students in inner-city schools. In the art programs, I have worked with students from grades 3-12, whereas in the movement programs, I have had the opportunity to teach groups of up to 30 students from grade 4-7 a variety of skills from soccer, basketball, badminton, tennis, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to take groups of students off school property to go on hikes around Kamloops, and of being able to take some of the students rock climbing!
Travelling has always been a big part of my life, and in the future, I would love to be able to travel around the world with the education I have and teach internationally. After I graduate, I have thought about applying for the JET program (Japanese Exchange and Teaching program) or looking for other international teaching opportunities for my partner and I. I am very excited to see where my future as a teacher takes me, and I can’t wait to see what the next phase of my life is going to look like.