Chapter 1: YOUNG Katy

When special education teacher and soccer coach Katy Wood was younger, everything seemed cool.

As a two-year-old, she swung and climbed from monkey bar to monkey bar with reckless abandon.

“I was like a daredevil,” Wood said. “I was always willing to try stuff and things didn’t ever really scare me.”

This spirit of being daring, of taking chances, has led Wood to places her two- work as a teacher. qualities translate into her

“She’s a very comfortable person to talk to. I love having her as a teacher,” Kai Nelson ‘25 said.

Even before her time at Monarch, Wood has always been a listener. From the grassroot initiative to connecting many kids to education, she has moved from chapter to chapter of her life diligently. A savior to wayward girls. A makeshift mom. The founder of a school.

Girls as young as 12 were put in the hands of Katy Wood. She owned a group house where beds were offered to girls at risk.

A group house is a small residential space that simultaneously provides support and therapy for those in need.

“I worked with different girls that had been in trouble with the law or their parents prostituted them out,” Wood said. “While they were in my house, a lot of them didn’t really have parents or parents who were a good fit.”

Girls were put in this house per judges order.

“They were from all over the state of Colorado and definitely traveled quite a while to come to the house.” Wood said. She became the girls’ parent, and their friend.

“While we were there, I watched them 24/7 and looked over their cases, went to court with them, took care of their medicines and