Big Thoughts

Kailey is in the 10^th grade and loves working with kids, so she came into Think Big for Kids to learn more about a career as a pediatrician.  She has three brothers and a sister, and loves volleyball, her friends and family. She is really good at English and is a whiz at fixing computers because she loves solving puzzles.  Kim Stebbings is her mentor and has a B.S. degree in Biology/Pre-Med.   She has run companies selling innovative medical products to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers.  Currently she mentors start-up healthcare companies to help them be successful.

Kim and Kailey have been discussing many career possibilities including the steps to become a doctor, as well as other professions that would involve working with kids like pediatric nursing, teaching, family counseling and owning a daycare center.   Because there are so many possibilities, they decided to have Kailey take an assessment called “StrengthsFinder” developed by Gallup (www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths) to better understand her talents.  After Kailey took the assessment, it highlighted her top 5 strengths and what they mean.  The book that goes with the assessment tool also describes what each of those strengths could mean in terms of a career and how to leverage them to success.

Kailey has amazing strengths in the area of people skills – Communication, Empathy, Positivity and Inclusion.  She sees the best in people and can read people really well, so she draws people to her.  Obviously these are great strengths to have when you are working with kids!  In addition, her number one talent and something she loves doing is figuring out what is wrong in various situations and fixing problems, which is a wonderful strength to have if she decides to pursue a career in medicine, but can be applied to many other careers too.

“I think StrengthFinders helped both of us understand Kailey better and will help us sort through more options for her future.  We discussed that the most important thing is finding joy in whatever you decide to do, because if you are doing what you love and using your strengths every day you WILL be successful and happy.” – Kim Stebbings