My name is Catherine Wolfe Bornhorst, and I am the woman behind Born Ingenuity. I am a full-time mom and full-time business owner. It sounds busy – and it is – but it is the perfect cadence for this season of life.
Reflecting back, I realize I’ve been pulled and guided to my current reality. With almost two years of pre-med classes completed, a 6 year-old named Clarence pulled me into Early Childhood Education. This guided me to transfer to Miami University, complete my degree, and become a teacher for Cincinnati Public Schools in the very building I was first pulled.
Transferring to Miami guided me to my husband, and I was soon pulled (willingly, I should add) to Albuquerque, New Mexico on military orders. I was guided into University of New Mexico’s Educational Leadership program and soon found a role as graduate student and research assistant. With my education background, I was eventually pulled to join a program evaluation company that exposed me to the vast, systemic and structural inequalities that further complicate education and social wellbeing. They also helped reveal my aptitude for grantwriting, which unsurprisingly nurtures my competitive nature.
Pulled again on military orders, I found myself back in southwest Ohio. Unclear on next career steps, my undergraduate college professor guided me to join Miami University’s Teacher Education Department as an instructor in Primary Education and Director of an innovated initiative, the Regional Primary Education Cohort, with the goal to further support the diversification of the teaching profession. Over the course of eight years, I am further fueled by my critical and rogue identity as an educator.
Other professional roles included a grants development coordinator for one of the largest and highest performing community colleges in the nation. I considerably strengthened and refined my grant writing knowledge and abilities during my tenure. For five years, I was also the Executive Director for the National Network for Educational Renewal, a membership network committed to the simultaneous renewal of schools and the institutions that prepare teachers.
My range of professional experiences finally guided me to create Born Ingenuity, through which I support clients across the country in a range of educational endeavors. Born Ingenuity is a consulting company specializing in education/early childhood and culturally sustaining practices and pedagogies. I am an evaluator and/or project lead for local and national projects focused on community schools, early college high schools, school-based health centers, early care and education, primary education, student engagement, and curriculum development.
I am always eager to see what is next, whether I am pulled or guided to new places (geographic and metaphorical). I must acknowledge that the pulling and guiding includes the inordinate reassurance, confidence, and support from countless individuals. In my work, I operate from this place of gratitude and agency. I am humbled and inspired by the courageous work people engage in to improve educational and social wellbeing, and I am delighted to stand beside them.
I look forward to your guidance. Or perhaps a pull.
My best,
p: (513) 382-7468
e: catherine@borningenuity.com
BORN INGENUITY 