Academy 1 and Hybrid Satellite Students administrator wants you to find your passion
Peerawut Ruangsawasdi
Staff Writer
In her office, decorated with inspirational quotes, educational books, and a picture of herself with the late Congressman John Lewis, Kelly M. Davis describes the joy she receives from working at Alexandria City High School.
“I absolutely love it,” said Davis, the assistant principal for Academy 1 and Hybrid Satellite Students. “I get the opportunity to work with the brightest and the best students ever.”
Davis, who comes from Colorado, served two years as the Dean of Students at South High School in Denver.
“Northern Virginia [has] a lot of traffic and it’s close to a lot of places so you can take a lot of weekend trips,” said Davis, “where [in] Colorado you drive eight hours and then you get to Nebraska, you know? [There were] about 1,300 kids, … the diversity mirrored A.C.”
For 4 years, she also served as the Dean of Students at Bishop Ireton High School. “You only had 800 students. So I knew everybody, … it’s a very small community, not as diverse as Alexandria City High School,” said Davis, “but I think here we just have so many classes and opportunities to take … they have half of the number of classes that we have, they don’t offer … photography, and … culinary arts. … So I was … overwhelmed when I first came here with all of the options and the number of kids, really, that’s the biggest difference. This is one of the biggest comprehensive high schools that I know of, you know. And … I’m just glad to be here.”
Davis said she has always wanted to be a teacher. “So, that’s a picture of me when I was like 8,” said Davis, pointing to photos of her younger self with her dolls. “I would line my dolls up and teach them lessons. … in [my] neighborhood, [I] wanted to help kids learn how to do cursive and writing. … So, from the time I was 8 years old I have always wanted to work with kids.”
Davis supervises the Career and Technical Education classes, and she says her favorite job is visiting those classes. “I get all of the fun classes where kids are really shining, especially like, in photography and videography, and just seeing the kids shine and doing something that they are really really interested in.”
A poster of Chef Craig Scheuermann at ACHS. Photo by Peerawut Ruangsawasdi.
She particularly enjoys food prepared by culinary arts students and Chef Craig Scheuerman. “The food tastes restaurant quality.”
The biggest change she has seen so far in her career, she said, is the pandemic. “I never thought, in my whole entire life, that we would be at home, doing school at home,” said Davis. “So I think that has really flipped the switch for me, how do we engage students and how do we keep students within, how do we keep the technology, how do we leverage the technology in a way to keep students engaged.”
Davis used to be an English teacher and also worked with English teachers and the English Honor Society as an administrator at A.C. She says her love for books and plays sometimes put her off track when she was working with English teachers. “I used to be an English teacher, so I love reading, I love discussing books, [and] I love writing. I’m not a writer for novels, but I can put pen to paper pretty well, but I love the discussion of books and plays. … [In] working with the English teachers … we would … get off track … because we would start talking about books or a play … and then we had to kind of revert back to ‘Okay, so what happened in class?’”
An avid Stephen King fan, her favorite Stephen King book is Pet Sematary. She said her teachers did not allow her to read Stephen King in class. However, she is glad to see that A.C. teachers are expanding the repertoire of books that students get to read. “I just think that kids should have joy in what they read, you know? You shouldn’t tell kids to ban books or anything crazy like that. You should read whatever brings you joy, that’s how I feel about reading.”
She believes that diversity is one of the strongest aspects of ACHS. “I definitely feel that here you can talk to anybody and just kind of like step out of your comfort zone and try to learn something new,” said Davis. “We work in groups and work with other people because when you get into the work environment, you’re going to work with people that don’t look like you, that don’t believe like you, that you may have to build that common bridge, so just take the opportunity to jump out of your comfort zone and meet somebody. You never know, you might meet a lifelong friend.”
Diversity is not the only part of ACHS that Davis likes. “I like the students, they’re hilarious. I think that we have a lot of resources for students. We have counselors that are available. We have social workers. We have a school psychologist, all of this support. And I think really this is a good place to just grow and learn and just touch a variety of people. And I think here you can really work to your potential.”
Apart from her regular duties as an administrator, she also greets people in the morning near door 10. She said that her love for school and education make this job enjoyable. “I’m always like ‘Hey good morning! Hey good morning! Hey good morning!’ I just love it because I love school and like I was one of those kids, this is crazy, but back in the day I was living in Denver, we would have a lot of snow days and I remember a couple times crying because I couldn’t go to school. So, I absolutely love school. I just believe that education has just opened so many doors for me, and then, like, your generation just like opened way more doors because you guys have careers that we didn’t have.”
She wishes that students would realize that high school is not just a stepping-stone, but a place to grow themselves individually. “High school is about completing tasks and developing a character and being accountable for your actions. … I think when you realize that, that’s when you can tap into your potential and your life just takes off.”
In her office, she has inspirational quotes hung up on the wall. She said that, because she is a positive person, she wants to remind people who come into “what can you learn and move forward and how you can turn this situation into something positive,” even if they did not come to her office for a positive reason.
Apart from inspirational quotes, she also has a picture of herself with the late Congressman John Lewis, whom she met when she was serving as an assistant principal at Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School. “He was just positive and I was just like, ‘I cannot believe I met this legend.’”
Davis said her role model is her mother. “She’s just the nicest person and always smiling and anytime she meets anybody it’s just a positive interaction.” Her favorite spot in the school is the third floor near the library, which offers her a break from her “very busy” office. She loves to travel, and her favorite destination is Hawaii. Her mantra in education for students is “stay focused on your dreams.”
Photo by Peerawut Ruangsawasdi
