(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Parenthood, travel, diversity, freedom and education: all these words can be used to describe what’s important to ASU bilingual and special education professor Kyle Messner.
In Messner’s 63 years, she’s traveled the globe, single-handedly adopted and raised two children from China, attained multiple degrees and taught students of every age, race and socioeconomic background. These experiences helped her become the educator she is today, she and her students said.
Because of her experiences with her family and her career, Messner said she thrives on diversity.
She doesn’t focus on people’s differences but instead focuses on the one element that makes everyone the same.
“I’m used to seeing people for people,” she said.
Her students agreed with her. In 2008, Messner’s students nominated her for the Excellence in Diversity Award – and she won.
“I still have a big poster hanging in my office,” she said.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Travel
Messner said the happiest summer she can remember was the one she spent as a foreign exchange student in Germany, between her junior and senior year of high school, in 1968.
Messner and the family she stayed with should not have gotten along, she said. They were Catholic; she was Protestant. They had a small family; she had four other siblings. She was fluent in French; the only French they knew was “oui,” “non” and “merci.”
However, that summer, Messner and what she calls her “German family” built a relationship that would last 46 years and counting.
Messner’s German mother would make her bed and put fresh flowers in her room. Her German father would take her on trips around Germany, Italy and Austria during the weekends.
“They treated me like a princess,” she said. “I wasn’t used to that.”
Messner and her German family kept in touch. They would visit back and forth, and now, Messner and her German parents Skype every Sunday.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Another memorable travel experience Kyle said she had was when she taught in South America.
It was four years after she had received her bachelor’s degree in French. She was teaching fourth and fifth grade in New York when she sold everything she had and took a job teaching in Colombia. While she was there she taught out of a shack made of bamboo and straw.
She said despite the conditions the experience produced her best teaching.
“I had freedom, and with that freedom, I got more creative,” she said.
Because of these and other travel experiences, Messner is fluent in French, Spanish and German. She also speaks bits and pieces of Norwegian, Romanian, Italian, Mandarin and Polish.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Parenthood
Messner’s path into parenthood started when she walked out of her own wedding in 1988. She had dated her fiancé for seven years and attended multiple counseling sessions, but they still had “a tough time getting it together.”
“I woke up in the middle of the night, sat straight up in bed and said, ‘What am I doing?’” she said.
Since that moment, Messner said she decided not to worry about getting married.
“If I wanted to be married, I could’ve been,” she said. “But I wanted more. I wanted freedom.”
After leaving her fiancé and finishing her master’s degree, Messner started teaching at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, but she always felt like there was something missing.
“Then I realized that single people could adopt,” she said.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Shortly thereafter, Messner adopted her daughter, Mei Ling, from China. She is now an 18-year-old sophomore at Wellesley College.
Mei Ling Messner said her relationship with her mother is as normal as everyone else’s.
“At the end of the day, she’s my mother,” she said. “It’s very much a normal relationship.”
In 2003, Kyle Messner said she still felt like part of her family was missing, so she started the process of adopting another child from China. She was told that this time around, she would have to adopt a child with special needs, which is how she found her son, Kevin.
“China messed up, because they wanted to give me a child with special needs, and they gave me an athlete,” Messner said.
Kevin Messner, now 14, was born missing bones in his lower right leg, and the leg had to be amputated at the knee shortly after his adoption in 2004. Since then, Kevin has competed in archery and track and field, and currently holds the national record for the 400 meter and the 200 meter in his age group.
Kevin said his mom is the reason he started playing sports.
“She’s really supported me and she got me involved,” he said. “I’m glad to have her.”
Messner said while she does not regret her choice to be a single parent, the job still has its struggles.
“The hardest part was I wish I had someone there to share the joy with,” she said.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Education
Messner said her vast formal and hands-on education is what makes her a successful teacher.
“I’ve always tried to bring my experience into the classroom,” she said.
Messner has a bachelor’s in French, a master’s in special education, a certificate in theological studies and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, but she says the hands-on experience is how she gives her students the tools they need to succeed.
Messner said she uses multiple strategies for teaching bilingual education courses such as singing in Chinese, reading foreign literature or listening to tapes in Farsi.
“I try to get them to see what it’s like to be (English language learners),” she said.
Many of her students said Messner's life experiences help them learn. Jessica Trufley, a junior elementary education student said Messner’s stories helped her become a better teacher.
“She gives you a lot of tools that you can use inside the classroom and just in life in general,” she said.
Messner’s students have also said that the personal attention she gives each and every student in her class is what makes Messner so special.
Her students describe her as compassionate, caring and inspirational. They said she goes above and beyond her duties as a professor. She learns all her student’s names and even eats with them in the dining hall at the West campus.
(Photo Courtesy of Kyle Messner)
Junior special education student Kaylie Henley said Messner is one of her favorite professors.
“She helps students out in any way possible,” she said. “She makes you feel so comfortable.”
Junior Vanessa Rios, an elementary education student, said she found Messner inspirational, and that she reminded Rios of her own mother.
“It’s really nice to have that connection with a professor," Rios said. "She’s really open to talking to people."
Leslye Norman, administrative assistant for the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, agreed that Messner’s compassionate nature is what sets her apart from other professors. Norman said Messner has even gone as far as helping her students with their other classes in order to see them succeed.
“We have good students and we have difficult students,” she said. “But she doesn’t want to see anyone fail.”
Norman said Messner has faced difficulties like everyone else, but she does her best to thrive in spite of them.
“Like everyone else, she struggles, but she’s doing it and she’s doing it successfully.”
Reach the reporter at Laura.M.Davis@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @LauraChelle
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