Kay Flewelling has three main passions in life: she loves people, she loves stories and she loves places. When it was time for her to grow up and get a "real job," she could think of nothing better to do than combine her three passions into a teaching job where she would meet people and get a chance to hear about the stories that they have from the places that they've been. She is ridiculously excited to learn the stories of her students, and their families, and to learn the crazy stories of world cultures with them in the coming years.

She grew up in San Diego, CA with her mom & dad, brother & sister. She never went to school, but instead, did all her learning at home, in the canyons, at the zoo and at Sea World. Because Kay homeschooled all the way from preschool until her Senior year, she has no real concept of how school is "supposed to work" which makes her perfectly suited to teach at a school as unconventional as High Tech High!

In 1998, she began participating in academic policy debate. She invested a lot of time and energy into this activity, and her hard work paid off in her Junior and Senior years when she took first place at the NCFCA National Tournament in both Value and Policy Debate. Before she had graduated high school, she was recruited by numerous national organizations to lead conferences, write articles and coach students. She has volunteered to coach for the Paradigm Speech and Debate Club in San Diego since 2001. She loves debate, because it taught her how to communicate effectively, and equipped her with all the tools she needs to find critical information on every topic imaginable.

She graduated with highest honors and numerous awards from San Diego State University in 2007 with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in History and Political Science. Her undergraduate courses focused on cultural history and how to make history come alive in the classroom.

After she finished her college coursework, she began volunteering as a tutor at the Barrio Logan College Institute. The BLCI is an organization that seeks to equip first-generation college-bound students with the resources they need to get to college. At the BLCI, Kay networked with students and other tutors, and that's where she first learned about HTHCV!

When she's not teaching or reviewing her students' work, she spends most of her time finding good places to just sit and be. On an average Sunday afternoon, you may see her wandering aimlessly up and down the streets of La Jolla, Potrero Valley or North Park, looking at the trees and scouting out good patches of grass to sit, talk, take pictures or read books.