Meet Kelli Park
A COMMUNITY PORTRAIT: Kelli Park
Kelli Park grew up in a military family and has lived in Maryland, Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Montana, California, Pennsylvania, Western Maine and Midcoast Maine. She recently completed her Master’s degree in Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages and has started working on her PhD in Leadership Studies at USM. Kelli has worked for local adult education programs for the past several years and currently teaches multilingual learners at Merrymeeting Adult Education. She is also an adjunct instructor at USM and CMCC and a freelance writer/photographer for local publications with special interests in the arts and the working waterfront. She enjoys adventures near and far with her 3-year old son, Kieran, who is always ready to hit the road.
What do you love about your life?
I love immersing myself in local culture – near and far! I love that I’ve had so many opportunities to experience different people and places and I look forward to doing more of that in the future. I’m always in pursuit of new experiences and I always have my camera with me as a way of telling the stories of those people and places. I love to get to know places in authentic ways and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Why do you do what you do?
I’ve always wanted to travel the world – see everything and go everywhere with all the stories to go with it! Although I haven’t quite figured out how to make that a reality just yet, I love what I do because it brings me closer to all of those far flung places. I love that I’m able to feel connected to faraway places in my classroom and in my community. I feel strongly about cultivating global influences locally. It’s a really beautiful thing to be able to tap into the potential of cross-cultural synergy within our community. I love being at the crossroads of culture.
What do you want to change?
My goal is to work toward reshaping and re-envisioning our classrooms and communities in ways that create space for changing cultural identities to promote social justice and equity while building thriving, sustainable multicultural communities. My hope is that this community becomes a thriving multicultural community and, in turn, becomes a model for other communities who hope to do the same.
