From Military Service To Alternative School Principal To Author

The Elsa Kurt Show · Mar 23, 2026 · 30m · transcript

Some stories start as a plan. Others start as a punch to the chest. My guest’s journey is both: she went from joining the military to earn the GI Bill, to teaching, to becoming a principal, and eventually building an alternate school in rural Texas for students who are behind on credits but still deserve a real path to a diploma. We talk about what’s changed for kids over the last decade, why anxiety feels so much more common after COVID, and how flexible education can still hold high standards when it’s built around real life circumstances.

Then we go somewhere more personal. She explains…