Humans of ACR – Kayla
“My favorite quote is ‘I am in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.’ I like to stay busy, talk to strangers, travel and try new things. I’ve been to 22 countries. 24 if you count Aruba and Puerto Rico. I had never been out of the country until I studied abroad in Toledo, Spain the summer before my senior year of college. Those 6 weeks absolutely changed my life. I learned that ‘holy moly, there is a whole world out there.’ After my senior year, I went back to Spain for a year to teach English. While there, it was super easy and cheap to travel around Europe. I ended up staying for two years. I’m biased, but I love to travel to Spain the most.”
“On March 3rd of this year, I left both of my jobs and went to training to be a flight attendant with American Airlines. The timing was terrible, and 2 weeks later we were sent home due to COVID-19. Since then, I connected with a friend who is a pilot for Delta. We met for coffee and she told me about her job, and that’s the route I’m going now. I saw this bump in the road as an opportunity to better myself instead of just sitting back and waiting to be a Flight Attendant. Plus, being a pilot fits my personality better and is really exciting! To be a pilot you need to have a go-getter attitude and strong decision-making skills. I recently started the solo flying part of my training. It still doesn’t seem real—how am I allowed to just get into a plane and fly it? I did a solo flight to Saint Cloud and it just hit me how beautiful it was, and how much I’d love staring at sights like this every day. Such an ah-hah moment for me. I am taking my check-ride for my Private Pilot’s License soon and after that the training continues.”
“I’ve worked at ACR for 5 years. Wait, actually 6 years. I’ve worked with 7 residents over the years, but all at the same home. I love the residents so much. I Facetime them often and even got to go visit them the other day on the porch. The last time I left for Spain, I had gotten in the habit of getting donuts with the lady at our house. When I told her I’d be gone for awhile, she asked when I’d be coming back. She told me she would wait for me to get back to go out for donuts, but I told her she could have donuts while I was gone too. Donuts are a big deal so it was so sweet of her to offer, I got a little teary eyed.” 
“I’ve stayed on as an on-campus recruiter throughout my travels as well. I was thinking of it recently, and I’m probably close to about 200 recruits at this point. I love seeing the name of someone I recruited who is now becoming an RS, or who completed an internship. All I did was tell them about ACR and help set them up for an interview, but it makes me really proud to see the impact they are now having on the residents. I like to tell my applicants that the learning curve at ACR is steep, but it’s all beneficial. After you get past that, it’s really like going to hang out with friends. I always found that spending time having fun with my residents was a great decompression from school. Once you get through the technical learning and training, it’s a really fun job.”