Sarah Conroy, Reporter
@sconroycourant
Becoming a teacher was not always Kelly Zilly’s first choice of career. After receiving her undergraduate degree in fashion design and merchandising, she began her career in the fashion industry. After five years of working in the industry, Ms. Zilly decided it wasn’t for her. She worked at Ridgefield High School for a number of years, before becoming a teacher in the Career and Technical Education Department at New Canaan High School in 2015.
Ms. Zilly decided to pursue a career in education instead of continuing in the fashion industry. “I realized it just wasn’t what I wanted to do forever,” she said. “And I’ve always enjoyed working with children.” This realization lead her to follow in the footsteps of both her mother and brother who are educators themselves. Ms. Zilly received her masters in education from Roger Williams University and became a teacher in 2013.
Before coming here Ms. Zilly worked at Ridgefield High School where she was introduced to the Connecticut American Association of Consumer Science. “It’s a national organization, which Consumer Science teachers can opt to be a member of. It’s a way for professional development, networking and knowing what’s going on in the organization,” Ms. Zilly said.
Ms. Zilly was introduced to the association when a peer from Ridgefield encouraged her to join. “They thought especially as a new teacher it was good to get involved and network and meet other professionals throughout the state who teach this,” she said. Ms. Zilly now obtains the position of President elect.
At NCHS, Ms. Zilly teaches courses such as interior design, baking, foods and nutrition and a new class called the fashion merchandising and design. “The course is going to be broken up into a couple different units based on careers within fashion merchandising,” she said. “For example there will be a section talking about working as fashion designers and then we’ll also learn about being a merchandiser and a buyer, another whole aspect of the fashion industry.”
A student in her interior design class, sophomore Valerie O’Neill, feels that Ms. Zilly has positively impacted her time here and helped to fuel her passion for interior design. “Ms. Zilly is a teacher that understands a variety of students’ creative view,” Valerie said. “She always attempts to make class interesting opposed to just throwing information at us. For example, instead of teaching us about how colors impact a company’s advertising she had us design our own company to understand how different colors affect the audience that is drawn to a business.”
“Everyday is different. When the students come in it’s always exciting to see what’s new with them,” Ms. Zilly said. “I love to see where I can help them and how we can grow together.”
