{"id":10961,"date":"2024-05-03T12:30:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/alumni\/?p=10961"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:58:06","slug":"uf-40-under-40-honoree-kelly-henderson-gives-back-to-community-through-education-entrepreneurship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/alumni\/2024\/05\/03\/uf-40-under-40-honoree-kelly-henderson-gives-back-to-community-through-education-entrepreneurship\/","title":{"rendered":"UF 40 Under 40 Honoree Kelly Henderson gives back to community through education, entrepreneurship"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>UF 40 Under 40 Honoree Kelly Henderson gives back to community through education, entrepreneurship<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kelly Henderson\u2019s career path has included teaching full time in the classroom, delving into the business world and even opening her own school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Henderson, a 2024 UF 40 Under 40 Honoree, credits her inspiring career trajectory to where her roots began: the UF College of Education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Henderson graduated with her bachelor\u2019s in elementary education in 2006, then with her master\u2019s in elementary education a year later. Two of the most beneficial experiences at Norman were getting to work with her cohort and the internships she did senior year and during her master\u2019s, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThat collaborative effort really helped prepare us for the real world,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During her time teaching in Johns Creek, Georgia, Henderson taught Fulton County\u2019s Early Intervention program. Her classroom focused on meeting the needs of a neurodivergent community and varying her instruction to each individual student.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After seven years of teaching full time, Henderson decided to pursue a new career path. She helped open a new fitness studio in Alpharetta, Georgia, as the lead manager for over four years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With education and business experience under her belt, Henderson, with her sister and brother-in-law, decided to open a preschool and childcare center in 2019. Thus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildingkidzschool.com\/schools\/roswell\/\">Building Kidz of Roswell<\/a> was born. The school focuses on giving back to the community with service opportunities, charity events and drives. In less than five years, enrollment grew from five children to 176 with a waitlist of over 400 potential students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While reflecting on her time as an EduGator, she advised current students to take any experience the college offers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSay yes to any opportunity that comes your way, whether it&#8217;s sitting in to hear a speaker or getting to go be on a school campus watching a teacher teach,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cIf a teacher asks you to jump in and try to teach something and they offer feedback, take it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To read more about the rest of the 2024 honorees, click <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/connect.ufalumni.ufl.edu\/events\/40gatorsunder40\/2024honorees\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/>[\/av_textblock]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Dean Glenn Good and alumna Kelly Henderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UF alumna moves from the classroom to the business world while focusing on education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":10962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.0) - 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