Alumni Profiles

B.A., Education Studies and English (double major), 2008

Elementary Education Teacher, Bedford County School District

Bedford, Va. 

To watch an interview with Katie, click here.

So I was visiting the Bass Pro Shops in Charlotte, N.C., with my stepdad,” says the irrepressible Katie Bailey, “when our journey took us close to Guilford College. It was the summer before my junior year in high school, and we thought — why not swing by and look at Guilford. Well, it was love at first sight.” 

She did visit other schools before deciding on her choice of college, including Wake Forest, William and Mary, Davidson, Virginia Tech (of course) and the University of Richmond. But Guilford College was her first choice, without question. 

Katie had grown up in a small, mountain town in Virginia, and she wanted to avoid a college that was overwhelming in size. “Guilford was great,” she says. “The kids I talked to on campus were friendly, the town was friendly, the campus had all this beautiful green open space. It all felt so comfortable, that I thought, this is what college should feel like!” 

She adds that Greensboro was a big city for her. In fact, the major impediment for her to attend Guilford College was stepping out of her comfort zone — leaving a very small town, where all of her relatives were close by, and facing the fact that she would be trying new things. “As it turned out,” she says, “that was definitely more of a benefit than a cost.” 

Katie says that for every student enrolled there, the Guilford College experience is “one that you make your own.” She explains: “The college gives you the framework, the resources, the guidance … but it is your journey. You have to take the steps, and that makes the end result so much more valuable.” 

In her view, the small-college experience as she lived it at Guilford was invaluable and unique: “Where else could you meet regularly with a college’s dean and even eat at the house of the college president — and, this is important, have people in positions like that really listen to your thoughts and care about what you say? It was a transformative time for me.” 

It was also, as she puts it, exhaustingly reflective: “The whole point of your time in the Guilford College Education Studies Department is to figure yourself out first before trying to figure others out. That is, before you step into the role of teacher, you need to do the reflection necessary to understand yourself and to develop your own philosophy of education. It can wear you out — it’s not an easy thing to accomplish — but it is invaluable. When you have that kind of foundation, you can adapt your teaching to any learning context.” 

Blessed with more personality than one person is normally given, Katie sparkles with the kind of enthusiasm that young people respond to … and that might explain part of why she’s a great teacher. When we met with her on a recent visit to the Guilford College campus, she had just finished serving a year as the kindergarten teacher for an afterschool YMCA program in Liverpool, N.Y., and before that she had worked as a program teacher with inner city kids in Syracuse.  

Her ultimate goal? “I want to teach in an urban, inner city school,” she says, “and here’s why: The way to success in public schools is to have good teachers. They are the key — they can truly make a difference in lives, in our system of education, in our society.” 

Katie professes that Guilford College taught her the value of teamwork, where things are decided though consensus; patience; and reflection. “If you can believe this,” she says with a conspiratorial laugh, “I actually used quiet moments of reflection — repeatedly — to center the behavior and mindsets of a group of 20 five-year-olds. And it worked!” 

Whatever Katie Bailey chooses to do in her future, it will improve things for those around her … and it will probably include reflection as a tool for personal growth.