Liam Ross-Fitzgibbons

Liam Ross-Fitzgibbons

Profile Story

12/11/12

“Not Your Average Athlete”

Kellie Sullivan can be found on any day on the first floor of the library working on her senior history thesis. When she isn’t working on her academics she is with her team. She worked hard not only in class, but just as hard on the field for the field hockey team. With a first look at Kellie you see all of her accomplishments in her college. She is a student whose work in history brings her to conferences around the country and has outstanding abilities in sports. What you don’t see about Kellie at a first glance is her compassion. She spent her past summer in a remote village in Tai Land teaching English.

                 

Kellie has always had a passion for social justice and service work. Kellie is an active member in Stonehill’s alternative spring break trips, known as H.O.P.E. Last year she travelled to New Orleans to work on disaster relief. There Kellie worked on homes and met with different people that have suffered from Hurricane Katrina. 

                 

Paige Marquis a senior leader on these trips says, “She is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met. Everyone on the trip works hard, but her comments in reflection would bring students to tears.”

                 

Shortly after that trip she heard from a friend back home about a program teaching in Tai Land. “My friend asked me if I wanted to go and I said of course I want to go. I then signed up for the mirror foundation.”

                 

The program had Kellie stay in a village outside of Chiang Rai, in the Northern part of the country. There she taught the village English. In the morning she would teach the children and in the afternoon she would teach the adults. She worked with the children in teaching them the beginnings of the English language. The adults had a more advanced skills and began to work on conversational English.

“I want to be an elementary school teacher and this experience was perfect for me. It was through this that I knew that I wanted to teach.” Sullivan says. By teaching in another country she began to do amazing work abroad and knew that she could use the skills she learned in Tai Land for her future in teaching. The experience also changed how she lives her life and through her experiences in Tai Land she is a different person.

The village that Kellie worked in had almost no English speakers. Kellie and her friend communicated with the people in French. "The native language is Tai, but where I was some people spoke a dialect of French. That's how I communicated with a lot of the older people." says Sullivan. This would be frustrating to most people, but Kellie took it as an opportunity to begin to learn Tai and to improve her communications skills with people of a different culture. 

                 

“During the week I would live with one of the families of the children I would teach. I slept on the ground on a sleeping bag. The people where so friendly and were so happy with the little that they had.” Said Sullivan

                 

Kellie had to experience a new culture that she had never been in before. The people of Tai Land live very differently in comparison to most people in the United States. This caused for a rough adjustment for her going to Tai Land and her return trip back to the United States.  

                 

“They barely waste anything. Everything that you have on your plate you eat. You are not allowed to waste anything. There is no electricity so you go to bed when it gets dark.” Sullivan said. “When you shower you just dump a bucket of water on your head and when you use the bathroom its just a hole in the ground. And they do not use toilet paper.”

                 

This adjustment can be hard for anyone but Kellie took it as a great experience and has used this experience to bring about change. Not only had she spent a summer teaching a village to speak English, but she also has learned to live more simply and to advocate against the amount of waste that people create.

                 

“It was actually harder to adjust coming back home”, Sullivan says. With all of the differences that Kellie saw she strives to waste as little as possible and to live as simply as possible.

“I was in a part of Tai land that was covered in Jungle. The view from my house and school was amazing.” She still misses the beautiful village she lived in with the extremely friendly people that she met. “Tail lands nick name is land of smiles and it lived up to its expectations.”  

                 

Kaitlyn Curtis on of Kellie’s best friends and teammates saw the happiness that she has when talking about her experience. “She really loved the work that she did in Tai Land. She is such a compassionate loving person and has a calling to help others that are in need.”

Kellie hopes to return to Tai land one day to continue teaching there and can hopefully teach abroad for a year or two after college.

                 

Kellie’s compassion for others and service work to others is beyond that of an average person. With all of the work it takes to be a college student, she still finds time to devote time to others. Kellie is a person with so much love that she gives to so many.