Kelly Michale

Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alum Kelly Michale ’03, a theatre teacher, director, and forensics coach at Ruskin High School in Kansas City, Missouri, is saluted as an inspiring and inspired teacher as part of “This Is My Moment,” a series of videos commissioned by California Casualty, a company that specializes in customized auto and home insurance for educators, nurses, firefighters, peace officers, and higher education employees. The video was posted on California Casualty’s website January 5. Michale graduated from the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Theatre with a concentration in stage management, and then received a Teacher Certification in Secondary Speech/Theatre Education and a Master of Arts in Education from Avila University in Kansas City. The film, shot by Wide Awake Films on location at Michale’s school, focuses on her close relationships with her students and chronicles rehearsals for a production of the musical Cabaret that Michale directed. While a student at Columbia, Michale had stage-managed a Theatre Department production of Cabaret directed by the late Theatre Department chair Sheldon Patinkin.

Michale says the most important thing for a teacher is to “BUILD RELATIONSHIPS with your students! Get to know them and learn their stories. Let them see who you truly are and be yourself. Be honest. The trust must be there and then everything else, including teaching the content, will follow.”

Here’s the video: