Kelly Sokolowski
OXFORD, Miss. – For Kelly Sokolowski, pursuing a career in higher education was a calling , one that took three years of business school at the Georgia Institute of Technology to hear.
“I was an orientation leader at Georgia Tech,” explained Sokolowski, who is pursuing a master’s degree in higher education at the University of Mississippi. “During my junior year, I realized the business world really wasn’t my calling at all – it was student affairs.”
As the School of Education’s Student of the Month for April, the Lawrenceville, Georgia, native is celebrated for acting as an assistant certification manager for the Oxford-University community by pursing an Excel by 5 certification.
Funded by a grant from Chevron, Excel by 5 is a statewide, community-based certification program designed to improve the well-being of children by age 5. To gain the designation, communities must meet a variety of standards in parent training, community participation, child care and more. Thirty-two Mississippi communities hold the certification.
Sokolowski has helped pursue the certification on two fronts: organization and data collection.
“Kelly has played a crucial role in moving us through the various steps of the certification process,” said Mary Harrington, UM director of institutional research and certification manager for the Oxford-University community. “Our coalition recently had its first state-level review and we passed with flying colors – largely in part to the wonderful work Kelly has been doing for us.”
As part of her assistantship, Sokolowski compiled a comprehensive portfolio of the community’s progress toward obtaining the certification. She also helped establish an Excel by 5 resource center in an unused building near campus owned by the university.
“We work with community leaders to bring everyone together,” Sokolowski said. “In order to become certified, we need to show our community meets the standards. It’s a lot of introducing people to one another.”
On the data front, Sokolowski works with Kathleen Sullivan, a visiting professor of education, who is working with several other School of Education faculty members to assess the school readiness of kindergarten students in all Oxford and Lafayette County schools. Sullivan says Sokolowski has developed skills in using a geographical mapping tool to display data results illustrating how community children are cognitively, emotionally and socially ready to enter school by age 5.
“We’re pooling the community data together to show how well the community has done as a whole in preparing children for school and to identify needs” Sullivan said. “Kelly has been a huge help. As a higher education student, she’s been a perfect example of how to work with various resources within a university to reach out and focus on helping a community.”
This summer, Sokolowski plans to complete an internship with the National Orientation Directors Association at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she will gain hands-on experience in helping the university plan orientation events. After graduate school, she hopes to pursue a career in student affairs at a public university. Her dream job is to become an orientation director.
“Before I came to college, I was shy,” Sokolowski explained. “But after orientation, I didn’t want to leave campus. I want to help students who maybe have never known their place, find it in college.”
For more information about the UM School of Education, go to http://education.olemiss.edu/.