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Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis

*Exclusively Represented by AEI Speakers*

Former Sandy Hook Elementary Teacher, Founder Classes4Classes, Author of Choosing Hope

On Dec. 14, 2012, in the first classroom of Sandy Hook Elementary School, first grade teacher Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis endured unimaginable tragedy. The heroic teacher is credited with saving the lives of all 15 of her students by acting quickly upon hearing the sounds of gunfire and locking them all in a small bathroom until the ‘good guys’ came to let her know that it was over and they were now safe to come out.
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Kaitlin M. Roig-DeBellis (https://kaitlinroigdebellis.org/) is the Founder & Executive Director of Classes 4 Classes, Inc., a 501(c)3 organization. Kaitlin founded Classes 4 Classes in 2013, knowing that positive social change was needed, and that this needed to begin with the youngest members of our society, our K-8 students. Classes 4 Classes is a social networking platform, for every student in the United States to learn: compassion, caring, kindness, empathy, consideration, through active engagement. Classes 4 Classes has worked with over 15,000 students in 38 states. In 2019 they are expanding to all 50 states. Classes 4 Classes has been featured in People, O Magazine, Fortune, Glamour, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping and other national publications. They have also appeared on World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Oz, Katie Couric, Fox News, NBC News, CNN and others.

Kaitlin is an inspirational and motivational speaker and speaks to all sorts of organizations including School Boards and Administrators, Teachers and Students, Hospital Foundations and Children’s Hospitals, Military and First Responder Groups, and Religious and Community Services Groups. Since 2013, she has spoken to over 215,000 people in 35 states, and 4 countries, to date. Kaitlin is the author of ‘Choosing Hope: Moving Forward From Life’s Darkest Hours’ published by G.P. Putnam & Penguin.

Kaitlin has taught for 5 years at Bay Path University in the Education Department, she teaches 2 courses, one that she created called ‘Choosing Hope’, as an Adjunct Professor. Kaitlin also works closely with Bay Path’s Admissions team as a recruiter for undergraduate admissions, which she has done for over a year. Kaitlin has served on the UCONN NEAG Alumni Association Board of Directors for 5 years. Kaitlin has served as a Leadership Legacy Mentor for 4 years at the University of Connecticut.

In 2016 Kaitlin received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In October 2014, Kaitlin received the Alumni Association’s Humanitarian Award from her alma mater, The University of Connecticut. In May 2014, Kaitlin received two Honorary Doctorate Degrees, one of Humane Letters from Bay Path College and the other of Public Service from Luzerne College. Kaitlin delivered a TED x talk at UMass Amherst in April 2014.

In 2013 Kaitlin received the Dedicated Teacher Award from The Chicago International Conference on Education. Kaitlin writes educational blog posts for the Huffington Post and Thrive Global. Kaitlin also contributed to the book ‘Teaching From the Heart’ volume 2, published in May 2014.

In 2013 Kaitlin was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year alongside Nobel Prize nominee Malala Yousafzai, Congresswoman and shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, Barbara Streisand and Emmy nominated actress Kerry Washington, among others. Previous Glamour Women of the year include Former First Lady and teacher, Laura Bush and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Also in 2013, Kaitlin was honored by L’Oreal Paris as one of their “L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth” of which she was one of “10 Inspiring Women Making Beautiful Differences in their Communities”. Through Women of Worth, L’Oreal Paris is committed to recognizing women who are true to themselves and their passion of making a difference in their communities. L’Oreal Paris supports these inspiring women through a donation for their charity and by raising awareness for their causes.

In 2007 Kaitlin began teaching first grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where she taught for 7 years. There she served on the Math Committee, Language Arts Committee, Action Research Committee, and Social Committee. She also began Marathon Mondays, a running club for 3rd and 4th grade students.

Kaitlin began her teaching career as a Reading Specialist in Westport, CT in 2006. While there, she worked with first and second grade struggling readers. Kaitlin worked closely with teachers, and administration to implement strategies and action plans for these readers.

Kaitlin attended UCONN and was accepted to the NEAG School of Education, where she completed her Masters of Education with honors in 2006. She was a member of Order of Omega honor society, The Historical honor society and the NEAG honor society, and was named a New England Scholar in 2005. Kaitlin served as the Historian for the NEAG Student Association and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority where she served as Membership Chair, Recording Secretary, and on the Scholarship Committee. She worked as an intercollegiate athlete tutor to refine study skills and plan essays for UCONN athletes, as well as a study hall monitor for the UCONN Men’s Soccer team.

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Topics

  • Keynote: The Power of Choice

    Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis endured one of the worst tragedies the world has ever seen. After, she had to make a choice. Life is all about choice, and the choice is yours alone to make. Kaitlin shares with her audiences the choices she has made with purpose, passion, perspective, overcoming and hope, and encourages audience members to do the same. Here is a glimpse:

    Purpose & Passion: Kaitlin shares her own life passion and purpose as an Educator, as well as, how she was forced to re-define both after tragedy. Work to find and define your own life's purpose/passion, the impact of this on the world, and the power that purpose has always played in your life. How can you make the choice to redefine your purpose, during a difficult time. We can each take steps to move forward, not on, from our own hard stuff. Everyone is confronted with pain, sadness, evil, and we each have a choice how to react to it. You can let the pain define you, or you can define your own purpose and passion in the face of it. What choice will you make?

    Perspective: Kaitlin shares the impact perspective has had on her life, especially after enduring the events of December 14th. The things that happen to us, don’t have to define us. When something happens to you in life that you never thought would, that you weren't prepared for, your world shatters. You think to yourself, I can't go on. When you endure the unthinkable, the unimaginable, you're right...you can't go on, not the same way you always had. You must adjust, make changes, re-chart your course, and move forward. You must move forward with thought, conviction and purpose to make your life and those around you, whole. Good and bad both coexist. In any one moment you always have both, it is a choice which to focus on. Optimism is a choice.

    Overcoming: After the events of December 14th 2012. Kaitlin had to make a choice. She chose to focus on the abundant good, also around. She chose to focus on making sure that day didn't define her students or herself. She chose to get her control back. Ultimately, she chose to overcome.

    Kaitlin will guide your group through how we choose to overcome the hard things that happen to us. That we have to be thankful in each moment, in each sunrise, in each embrace with a loved one. We simply don't know when it will be our last. If you can find the space in every moment to say, 'thank you', thank you that I'm here, thank you for this moment, thank you for bringing me here. Then you are aware of life's fleeting nature and of your need to be present in your life. You are aware that no matter what you endure you can choose to overcome it and be thankful. You can choose gratitude and turn your own hard time around!

    Power of Hope: In the best of times or the worst in your life, you can always choose to have hope. Having gone through the unthinkable, the unimaginable, many say to Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis 'if I were you I wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.' For her that IS why she gets up every morning. She refuses to let that day, that tragedy, define her life. Instead her life is her own, and she will define its course.

    Every morning that you wake up, you have a new chance to get it right, to make choices to live your best life. Hope is the driving force, it is the reason we embark on any task job or mission. Kaitlin encourages her audiences that 'no matter what you endure, you can always choose hope.’

  • Keynote for Children's Hospitals: Shifting Your Perspective: How to Focus on the Good

    When we encounter the darkest, hardest times in our lives, or the lives of others it is very easy to focus on the darkness and the hardship. Instead Kaitlin encourages audiences in spite of the hard times to find the good that is also all around. Good and bad both co-exist and it is our choice which we wish to put our energy into. It is possible to shift our perspective from the impossible to the possible simply by adjusting the way we think. This is what Kaitlin imparts on all audiences.

  • Keynote for Hospitals Preparing for Trauma: Integrating Hopeful Thinking: How to Overcome

    There are many times in each of our lives where we find ourselves lost and alone. In these times we must have the strength to find the glimmer of hope, there always is one, and find a way to focus on it. In Kaitlin's life she has been reminded many times, and often during the toughest of times, that on any day there is always, always, always something to be grateful for-if you don’t believe it, just place your hand over your heart. It is this notion that has enabled Kaitlin to overcome her own adversities even when it seemed impossible. She encourages her audience members to do the same. The ability to overcome any trauma is found in focusing on what can be done and on the good that is (also) all around.

  • Keynote: My Faith Carries Me Through

    On December 14th 2012 Kaitlin Roig's sense of security was shattered. Having stood on the brink of death, and having looked it in the eyes, she talks about what she experienced in those moments-and most importantly since. She talks about the power of prayer in those moments, and after. She discusses the role that faith and positive thinking have even during the most trying of times.

    Kaitlin shares how she overcame that trying time, by looking inward and through her strong faith in God and prayer. She shares the journey, how maddening it was to live like a prisoner in your own body-terrified of everything, until she focused on her faith. She shares how she came out on the other side, stronger. She shares this message, because hard times, grief and loss are universal, and that it is a choice of how we move forward with faith. You must move forward with thought, conviction and purpose to make your life and those around you, whole. Optimism is a choice. Faith is a choice. Kaitlin encourages her audiences to choose both.

  • Keynote: Letter to a College Graduate

    Kaitlin will help to culminate the end of your school year with this poignant, moving and inspiring ‘Letter to a Graduate’. In it she includes the tenants of her book: purpose, passion, perspective, overcoming and hope, as they each apply to a new graduate about to set off on a new path! She uses each of these to inspire Graduates to make the right choices for themselves in their lives. And also, to know that when bad things do happen, which they will, it is in their control how to react.

  • Workshop: Choosing Hope

    In this workshop, audience members will personally explore the 5 key components outlined in Kaitlin’s book: Choosing Hope. The overview for each can be found outlined in Kaitlin’s topics, choice in relation to: purpose, passion, perspective, overcoming, and hope. You may choose which you would like your workshop to focus on-or a combination of 2.

    Life is, in fact, all about choice. That is the core of everything that we will discuss. No matter what situation you go through, or endure in your life you are the one who holds the control of how to react, or not to it. You alone hold the power. You also have the ability to help others to be aware of this in their own lives. When you are truly aware and you think in this way you can impact not only your own life- but everyone else's around you. You can instill an element of hope in someone who may feel despair or lacking of hope.

    It is by learning the principles of what 'Choosing Hope' means that you can change your life, and the lives of others. The choice is yours alone to make. We will begin by exploring and relating to each other’s own “darkest hours.” We will then strategically move through 5 key components, which will be the core of this class and that we will explore in depth.

  • Workshop: Social Emotional Learning

    Kaitlin will share with your school district various ways to incorporate engaging social curriculum ideas into your K-5 teachers' school day. This can include breakout sessions to work to create lesson and unit plan ideas. She will share her curriculum ideas and work with teachers to brainstorm ideas for their own students. An academic education is very important, equally so is a social curriculum to learn to work with, and care for one another.

    As educators, if we want our students to be caring, kind, loving, empathetic people, then we need to take the initiative to teach that. Students learn kindness by being kind, they learn to care by caring, and they learn empathy by being empathetic. Teachers need to create an environment where students learn to care for others not by talking but by doing, by being actively engaged. Then the message is cultivated that our lives are not separate, but in fact completely connected. When we teach kindness, compassion, love and empathy, there is no room for hate.

Books

Choosing Hope: Moving Forward from Life's Darkest Hours
Choosing Hope: Moving Forward from Life's Darkest Hours

"Bad things happen to all of us, things that test us and impact us and change us, but it is not those moments that define us. It is how we choose to react to them that does." -Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis

On December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis saved the lives of fifteen six- and-seven-year-old students by piling them into a single-occupancy bathroom in her first-grade classroom. But Choosing Hope is not about what happened at Sandy Hook. It's a testament to the choice we can all make to choose hope in order to conquer tragedy, even in our darkest hours. Choosing Hope's five sections-Purpose, Perspective, Choosing Your path, Choosing to Overcome, and finally Choosing Hope-provide a clear and organized road map that will inspire and teach readers to overcome their own personal tragedies, whatever they may be. Like Kaitlin, who was able to find purpose and optimism in the most difficult of circumstances by improving the lives of those around her, readers will see how they can use the tenets of gratitude, endurance, purpose, and the power of choice to live positively and with hope.

You can purchase this book here

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