Hometown Hero - Katie Kusilek

This week’s Hometown Hero is Katie Kusilek of the Onalaska School District.

I first met Katie at UW-La Crosse’s Community Conversation on Immigration Reform back in June where she was a panelist and I was immediately impressed by her spirit and passion about the issue. I decided that she would be perfect for a Hometown Hero. The reason I was not able to do this sooner was because Katie, like most of our Hometown Heroes, likes to keep very busy. She spent all of July in in Swaziland, Africa on a mission trip - but more about that later.

Katie is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for the Onalaska School District and she has been teaching for the past six years. She grew up in Fond du lac and graduated from Montello High School before going on to UW-L for college. After graduation she was open to finding a job both in Wisconsin and in other states. But as luck would have it, she got to stay local.

Within the school district, Katie gets to work with a unique population of students, which she says is one of the most rewarding parts of her job. She works with students to figure out their level of English proficiency and works closely with their classroom teacher so that they can create a plan to help the student grow and thrive. Primarily, she works with students who speak Hmong, Vietnamese and Spanish but she points out that there are always students coming in who speak a wide variety of languages.

Katie says that she really enjoys working in the La Crosse area because she gets to experience a wide variety of cultures both through her students and members of the community. She notes that even in the City of Onalaska there are multiple populations of different languages and cultures leading to a quite a lot of diversity.

What brought Katie to the Community Conversation on Immigration Reform was her passion for educating people about the different cultures all around them. She enjoys helping people become aware of the needs of particular subgroups and to make them aware of what resources are available in the community. She says that she really appreciated getting to be on the panel and having the opportunity to discuss these important issues with a wide variety of people. In addition to helping to encourage knowledge and tolerance of other cultures, Katie says she is fascinated by the law and history surrounding immigration and cultural assimilation. She always appreciates the opportunity to continue her learning.

In her spare time, Katie likes to keep active. You can find her and her husband out and about canoeing, kayaking, running, and her true passion, yoga. During her mission trip to Swaziland, she helped adolescent girls learn important skills and provided them with a homelike atmosphere. She says the whole experience was “fulfilling in every aspect.” It was very spiritual for her and she says Swaziland really started to feel like home in the end. Katie also belongs to the AMOS Immigration Task Force which organized the Community Conversation on Immigration.

In everything she does Katie’s kindness and welcoming spirit come across in full. She is a great example of what a Hometown Hero should be, someone who is willing to help bring people from difference cultures and backgrounds together for the purpose of education and community improvement. We need more people like you, Katie.

Congratulations to you, Katie! Keep up the good work and continue to be a Hometown Hero.

Hometown Hero is a weekly feature put together by Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska). If you have any suggestions of a Hometown Hero, send a short description of why you think this person should be a Hometown Hero and contact information of both you and the nominee to rep.doyle@legis.wisconsin.gov.