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Now in her eleventh year under the Mountain, Kelley Bogardus would be forgiven for believing that she had it down. AP Lit teacher, Field Hockey coach, Fourth Form dean and Writing Center consultant – these are the roles she plays on campus now. But, for her, the way she’s always done it isn’t good enough. She wants to do better, do more, and, in a consistent conversational reference, always involve students in their own process, while letting them know that she’s there.
She grew up with a single mom, between the ages of one and 12, moving from Tennessee to Colorado before landing at Holderness School in New Hampshire when her mother remarried. It was a big cultural shift for her – so big that her friends were convinced that she was headed for reform school. She didn’t know what to think, but, in truth, ended up at a place filled with adults who were excited to get to know her, who seemed more like relatives than neighbors. She credits Tom Eccleston and his kids with showing her the beauty of vacation hockey, which she remembers playing for up to six hours a day. He was also her "really tough" History teacher who pushed her to do well in both endeavors. She remembers being scared to death of him in the classroom.
Kelley also remembers Kate Knopp, her English teacher, who realized that she loved to write. Many of the teachers, in fact, saw that there was something in her that they could nurture. While school was never easy, Bogardus came out of high school as one of Holderness’s student leaders, knowing that she’d done well with hard work and dedication, that she’d had as much to do with her education as her teachers had. This is something that sticks with her today.
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After Holderness, Bogardus went to the University of New Hampshire (UNH), where she played ice hockey and, in her words, “benefited from a coach who valued work ethic. I knew I had that! I knew that that was something I could control.” She chose UNH the same way that she’s made other big decisions in her life, based on the people she loves. She was choosing between two schools, one of which was so far away that her mom wouldn’t be able to come to her games. That was a deal breaker. And it ended well; she was chosen to captain the team, something she says she’s really proud of, an honor given, “for my attitude and work ethic and not necessarily talent.” She also now has a group of women from that team whom she talks to all the time, who are lifelong friends.
When Kelley was trying to decide what to do after college, her true nature came through again. She considered applying for college coaching jobs, but was afraid that, if she didn’t go to boarding schools and teaching first, she would chicken out. Her overriding compulsion was to give back to the kind of place that had given her so much and, as she said, “a sport that was really a hobby and an outlet opened the door for me. I was really lucky,” she said. “My mom was right when she encouraged me to apply everywhere. I kept an open mind, and ended up in a great situation.”
For the next ten years, Bogardus taught and coached and worked as a dorm parent at the Taft School. Luckily for her (and him), in her third year there, her future husband, Admission Director, Andrew Bogardus, arrived on campus. During the couple's time at Taft they married and had their first child, and came to Berkshire just before their second child was born. Now in their eleventh year on campus, the Bogardus family seems to have always been here.
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But Kelley doesn’t want to rest on her history. She prefers to shake things up a bit. This year, in fact, she decided to have her AP students teach a class in pairs. One pair was in fine form the day that admission officers from Brown, Johns Hopkins and Notre Dame visited campus to get a better sense of Berkshire students. Beforehand, Kelley gave the students the chance to take a different day, but they said no. They wanted to do it. They blew the officers away with their understanding of the text (Tess of the D’Urbevilles), with the level of the discussion, and with their facility in leading a class.
But Kelley was more interested in the students – she sees this assignment as one that empowers students to direct engagement and to take ownership of the text. In her words, “it was awesome!” No less so were other classes in which student leaders involved every student in the discussion. Bogardus loves this kind of innovation. “The kids brought what they had enjoyed in other classes to this one. It was easy to recognize engagement when so many voices were involved in every discussion.”
Her eyes light up the most when she’s talking about her students and about her family – it’s clear that the human part of her job is her favorite. In fact, she says as much when asked. “I love what I do, I love the kids and my colleagues and this community. The challenge is not to get stale in that situation. How do I, in the latter part of my career, change things up and not just tap into what I’ve already done?”
One way is that she would like to be an active role model for younger female colleagues and female students. “In this community, in this society, where girls have such issues with their self-image, it’s good for them to see confident, proud women of all shapes and sizes. I’d like to be more intentional about that role.”
It’s no surprise that she loves this place; “it has enlarged my spirit; I feel empowered, knowing that I have a voice at Berkshire. And I feel something about the Mountain, something greater than myself. It humbles and strengthens me.”
Which seems to be an ongoing theme in her life – that idea that no one goes it alone. That we all need each other. And that those things bigger than ourselves are where we see both possibility and truth.