Kelli Fay-Wolfe shares what led her to be a professor at URI in the math department. PHOTO CREDIT: uri.edu
Sometimes unplanned journeys take you exactly to where you are supposed to be, and math lecturer Kelli Fay-Wolfe’s life exemplifies this.
Born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, Fay-Wolfe was not always sure where her path would lead her. However, with a self-described insatiable curiosity and a determined work ethic, she earned admission to the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and later Harvard University, where she earned a master’s in education, which she said has allowed her to pursue a career that she loves.
College, according to Fay-Wolfe, was a time of exploration and experimentation for her. She really didn’t know what was ahead of her, but she wanted to try things out to learn what she enjoyed.
“The more you experience and the more you learn, the more you will know what you really enjoy and what you want to do,” Fay-Wolfe said. “Stay excited.”
When pursuing her master’s at Harvard, Fay-Wolfe said she found her work interviewing prisoners and studying their psychological processes extremely interesting.
“It really wasn’t until I graduated from both those [programs] that I said ‘huh, what do I really want to do?’” Fay-Wolfe said. “I was fortunate to be in a situation that allowed me to be able to go back and [be flexible].”
She said that she always had a love for math and wanted to come back to it, which motivated her to pursue a career as a math teacher.
Over the years, her motivation for being a teacher has shifted to being more about her connections with her students. She said she loves to be around at that moment when students suddenly understand the content.
“I get excited when I see, all of a sudden, that spark, ‘oh they get it,’” Fay-Wolfe said.
Success is different for each person and achieving it takes many different forms. But for Fay-Wolfe, success has always taken the form of big dreams.
“To get what you want you have to dream big,” Fay-Wolfe said. “You have a choice. Don’t tell yourself, ‘I can never do that,’ because the more you say things that are negative, the harder it is to come back from.”
She said that everybody fails at something at some point in their lives, and emphasized the importance of making yourself move even when you don’t want to. She explained that it can be as simple as just getting out of bed and heading to the dining hall.
Fay-Wolfe went on to talk about the importance of moving on from these little failures and building that “muscle.”
“You can’t think ‘there’s success over here and failure over there,’” Fay-Wolfe said. “I don’t think it’s black and white. That failure may lead you to somewhere where you really ought to be.”
While it was not always her plan, Fay-Wolfe earned her master’s degree in applied mathematics from URI during the pandemic, and is now teaching, doing what she loves. Sometimes unplanned journeys take you exactly to where you are supposed to be.