Instructor finds home at ACC

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October 24, 2017 - 12:00 AM

Allen Community College sociology instructor Katie Mitchell is not from Kansas, but she already feels comfortable since relocating and teaching in Iola.
“I’m familiar with living in a small town because that’s where I grew up,” Mitchell said. “I felt like in a sense I was coming home.”
Mitchell is originally from Solon, Iowa before she attended the University of Kansas to earn a degree in Spanish and anthropology.
She taught elementary and middle school education in Texas near the Mexican border in the towns of La Joya and Donna. It was in Texas that Mitchell gained insight as to life’s possibilities.
“My teaching experience in Texas really helped open my eyes to the fact that you don’t have to leave your own country to find lots of areas where you can help.”
Before Texas, Mitchell had served in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua for three years where she focused on developing leadership skills. She later spent five years in Austin doing survey research at the University of Texas.
In graduate school at Illinois State University Mitchell changed her focus to sociology.
Mitchell liked being able to interpret data, something that anthropology was lacking, she said.
Mitchell enjoyed the atmosphere of graduate school because a majority of the students did not come straight from undergrad. Like Mitchell, students had either worked or did other activities between before enrolling in the advanced program.
Mitchell said she has adjusted well to teaching at a community college. There were early changes she had to go through, but said she “hit a stride” once becoming familiar with her students.
She likes how her students are no longer reserved when it comes to asking questions. Mitchell said her student take risks when coming up with new ideas, keeping the classes pro-active. She said it’s not always about being right, but having innovative thoughts on culture. 
Mitchell hopes her students will become emboldened to break out of any cultural bubble they might have lived in growing up. She hopes to expand their knowledge of the world.
“I want my students to think critically about the social world,” Mitchell said. “Students may not go to sociology long term, but I believe it gives them an opportunity to look at the world around them and realize we make our own decisions and the trajectory of our lives.”

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