Just a couple of months after graduating from Carolina, Kelly Mills ’26 is heading to La Rioja, Spain, to teach English through the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program.
Thanks to her work through the UNC School of Education’s Human Development and Family Science Program and time connecting with children outside the classroom, Mills has a wealth of experiences to draw from as she starts this next chapter.
Mills comes from a family of teachers: Her parents and both her aunts are educators. Growing up around them, she always felt drawn to work with children and families.
That led her to Carolina, where she served as a teacher’s assistant at the Carolina Friends School’s Chapel Hill campus during her sophomore and junior years. She was also an extended day teacher for Morningside School in Carrboro her junior year.
“I had phenomenal professors, great classes, and overall the community in the School of Education was positive and welcoming. When you walk into Peabody Hall, you always see friendly faces, and they often have fun events planned,” said Mills. “My four years at UNC were genuinely the best four years of my life to this day. My time with the School of Education was very impactful.”
During her final year at Carolina, Mills connected more with children outside the classroom. She worked as a volunteer management intern with TABLE NC, a food access program in Carrboro, serving about 1,200 children and their families.
Mills worked on the Tuesday fresh food shift, working with other volunteers to pack around 300 bags of healthy food weekly for local children and deliver them to families.
She committed 360 service hours to TABLE NC, part of her 700-plus service hours to Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities through the Buckley Service Scholars program through the Carolina Center for Public Service.
Mills also connected her passion for dance with her teaching. A dancer since she was 4, she paid that forward by teaching at the Center Theater Company and Carolina Dance Collaborative, where she led weekly dance classes for children ages 2 to 17. She developed age-appropriate lesson plans that built foundational technique, coordination and creativity to fit students’ needs.
“I love teaching and working with kids in the school setting, but doing it in a dance setting really gave me the chance to combine my two passions,” said Mills. “At the end of a long day, teaching dance energized me a lot.”
The Fulbright program piqued Mills’ interest because of the opportunity to combine teaching with culture. She wants to learn how different cultures approach teaching and bring lessons from Spain back to the U.S. to incorporate into her own career.
Mills also plans to start a cross-cultural dance program within the school in Spain or with local students in the area.
“I’m excited to be able to put a lot of the things I’ve learned in classes into practice and really support building those relationships,” Mills said. “Through my coursework, I feel like my strongest point is social and emotional development. I’ve learned about how kids grow and why children are acting a certain way. It’s helped me understand where it’s coming from and how to respond to them.”
After her year with Fulbright, she hopes to pursue a career in food access or youth mental health and suicide prevention.