The Danville Independent School District is starting a new spotlight series on recent graduates who graduated from Danville High School 10 or fewer years ago. 

First in this series is Kira Pusateri, who graduated in 2023. She’s currently a junior at Centre College and a Brown Fellow there. 

Through the program, she receives a full-ride scholarship, close mentorship, and summer internship opportunities. She is able to receive $6,000 to conduct a research project or other project that contributes to Kentucky in some way. Last year, she went to Belize and used the funding to pay to do an archaeological field school. Her focus was on community making, which is how she tied the project back to Kentucky — studying how people interpret their communities based on the past. This year with the funding, she’s considering doing tours around Kentucky, another field school or some other project closely tied to Kentucky.

Pusateri is double majoring in anthropology and religion. She wants to either go into archeology, anthropology or teaching. Though she sees herself possibly leaving Kentucky for a few years, and traveling, she can see herself coming back. 

“I find myself coming back to teaching a lot … I really do love the Danville school system and teaching, and I really care about the success of this district, so I do see myself coming back here,” she said. 

One current tie she has to the Danville Schools is that she helps out with John W. Bate Middle School’s academic team, which she was involved with as a student herself. She started attending Danville Schools in middle school and stayed in the district through graduation. 

“I had some great teachers, like I love Mrs. [Laurie] Pierce,” she said. “Danville’s small enough that it feels very close-knit, and I feel like people really do care about each other and the success of each student at Danville, which I think is important.”

Something that draws her toward teaching is that she described educators as dedicated to their communities and the success of kids. She comes from a family with many educators, so she said she’s seen the dedication firsthand.

“It really is the most fulfilling and, I think, important, job there is,” she said.

Community involvement is something Pusateri said she feels strongly about. As president of her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma (Zeta Gamma chapter), she wanted to focus service projects in the Danville community. 

“That was one of my main goals as president of Kappa, was trying to get people to care about Danville and work on improving Danville,” she said. 

Pusateri said she’s grateful for the opportunities that have been available to her through the Brown Fellow program. Each year, the group meets with people from around the state, allowing for excellent networking opportunities, and they also take trips to different Kentucky communities. They also visited London, England, as a group. 

“We’ve had so many amazing discussions with people from around the state, so I’ve gotten to interact with a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life,” she said. 

For work, Pusateri works at Dry Stack Coffee and said she loves how it brings people together. 

Looking forward, she has plans to travel abroad to London, Spain and Morocco. 

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Got a suggestion of a recent graduate we could spotlight? Let us know by filling out the form linked below. To be considered for this recent graduate series, the individual MUST have graduated from Danville High School 10 or fewer years ago.

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