Kate Ahlgren

Ahlgren enjoying Culver’s during chemotherapy.

Kate Ahlgren is the Stoughton School District’s director of curriculum and instruction and has played a vital role in creating an inclusive and high-quality learning environment for students and staff. Last year, Ahlgren was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
“I would say that the beginning of my journey really began last summer when I had my diagnosis, which was very surprising,” Ahlgren said. “I had experienced very few symptoms, and the diagnosis was very weighty. But, [I knew it was] a really significant diagnosis that I knew would change the trajectory of my life.”
Ahlgren decided to move forward with multiple different types of treatment.
“Since [the diagnosis], I’ve had a couple of surgeries, as well as several rounds of treatment. I’m still going through some of that now, but I’m [currently] feeling really healthy,” Ahlgren said.
What is unique to her experience is that she is able to use a portable device to deliver the chemotherapy, and she is able to keep it on-hand with her as she goes about her day.
The other aspect of her treatment involves palliative care, which, contrary to popular belief, is different than hospice. Palliative care is a caregiving approach aimed at optimizing the quality of life for those with severe and complex illnesses that are not necessarily terminal. This form of care focuses on physical, psychological, and spiritual care in order to treat symptoms by a team of medical professionals. Ahlgren has been very open-minded and optimistic about her diagnosis and treatment journey.
“I feel really fortunate to have a wonderful care team,” Ahlgren said. “They are very responsive, especially on those couple occasions where I haven’t quite received the response that I had hoped for. I was able to be assertive enough to indicate what I was hoping to expect though, and what the space between the two is.”
When asked about her thoughts on medical advocacy, Alghren said, “I think it is really important to take yourself and your health very seriously. It has been something that I thought I prioritized, but I’ve learned that I need to continue to work towards it. Especially when I think about advocacy, I think about being a teacher, which is what I am in my heart and in my work, I feel compelled to advocate for myself. I always think if I can advocate for myself, then I know that I can encourage our staff to advocate for themselves and students to advocate for themselves as well.”
Ahlgren said, “I always think there’s that opportunity for me to learn something through advocacy because sometimes it was I didn’t maybe necessarily understand the process and I needed to do the learning. There were some times when I really did feel like there was a patient perspective, that was what was needed in particular instances. So I was able to advocate for that.”
When talking about community, she said, “I think that’s the thing you feel is very, very connected, and [also that] you see your path really maps onto a much larger, narrative or truth that all of us go through,” Ahlgren said. “I do feel very supported by both our students and staff and [I am] also really influenced and admire some of these stories that I know our community members have gone through and are going through now.”
Mental health is another aspect of her journey with cancer. “Mental health has been certainly an evolving journey that I am on the path of, but I’m unraveling that a bit for myself. Piece by piece, and learning to live with the uncertainty of everything.”
She said that one major stressor due to the various surgeries and treatments as a part of her plan is waiting. “Waiting is full of precarity. I think that that has been a challenging and a worthy state to muscle through that idea of a lack of certainty, which is really life,” Ahlgren said.
Regardless of where life takes her, Ahlgren’s outlook stays optimistic and hopeful. “The way to seek out the most joy is to look for ordinary miracles that I see every day, in my family and at work. Those are the things that bring meaning to me, and trying to let go of those some of those other things [that can’t be controlled].”
Her bottom line was, “I always feel like it might be true that things don’t always happen for a reason, but everything can matter.”