By Kali Azzara
Kathleen Kelm, associate professor of Computing and Information Sciences at Edgewood College, has a passion for teaching and learning.
While Kelm currently teaches computer sciences, she did not start out in that field.
She got her degree in history and linguistics, but she fell into computer technology. “I did not pick computers, trust me,” said Kelm.
When she was first looking for employment after college, she ended up in accounting and worked with someone in computer software. From there, she started doing computer technology for her career.
Kelm has worked across the world teaching both in person and online. For example, she works at the University of Liverpool, teaching classes online to students across the world. “My interest in teaching online really came out of my missing the … multicultural environment of Toronto,” said Kelm.
Teaching at Edgewood, however, sort of happened to Kelm once again. “Complete accident,” Kelm said.
She was contacted by an Edgewood alum who asked if she knew anyone that would teach a networking class. Kelm said that she could. She ended up coming to Madison from Toronto and found that she loved teaching at Edgewood.
“The first year I was a little unsure about what I got myself into, but I love the students. That’s what did it for me was all the students,” said Kelm.
Nick Sengstock, vice-president of the student organization Edgewood Empowered, had Kathleen as an advisor. “Kathleen has always been wonderful to have as an advisor,” said Sengstock. “She constantly goes out of her way to help us achieve the goals we’ve set forth as an organization.”
One of Kelm’s classes she liked teaching at Edgewood is the capstone course. She started out teaching an early version of the capstone course before it was implemented in all degrees at Edgewood. She said she liked how students told her that it led to certain positions for them and used what they learned in their communities.
After her first retirement from Edgewood, Kelm ended up working near Amsterdam as part of her job at the University of Liverpool. She said she missed teaching undergrad students, and when an opportunity opened up at Edgewood again to teach, she came back.
Kelm will continue her work at the University of Liverpool teaching online courses and will spend more time with her grandchildren and husband after she retires from Edgewood this May. As she reflected, Kelm said she could have gone back to Canada, but Edgewood is what led her to stay here in Wisconsin.
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