Your Neighbor: Meet Ashley Birkins

Published 12:05 am Thursday, July 24, 2025

By Mandy Haggerson

For the Clemmons Courier

While summer has officially hit the midway point, educator Ashley Birkins has never truly hit the pause button. As the math content coordinator for the Triad Academy at Summit School, she has continued to tutor students and help facilitate the summer camp, Camp Pathfinder, that makes learning the Orton-Gillingham program fun. 

Relating to children comes naturally to Birkins. Growing up, her parents always supported her when trying new things academically, socially or through sports. Whether Birkins was on the softball, volleyball, soccer or basketball team, she always gave it her all.

“Volleyball was the sport I mostly gravitated towards,” said Birkins. “My sister had also played it competitively which exposed me to the travel aspect of it.” 

The lessons from sports crossed over to her work ethic in academics too. Being able to juggle athletics and her schooling was important to Birkins who was also a student herself at Summit School from junior kindergarten to ninth grade in 2000. For high school, Birkins graduated from Forsyth Country Day School with dreams of trying something new and different. 

“For my first year, I went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth,” Birkins said. “I thought that I wanted to be a rancher and live out on a big farm somewhere in Texas. I loved animals so much and being outside and active. I realized pretty quickly though how much I missed my family and being near them. After my freshman year, I transferred to Clemson University because I had also liked it when I had done college tours.”  

While considering education as a major, Birkins eventually decided to focus on business with a minor in sports marketing.

“I loved all the sports marketing classes that the business program offered,” Birkins said. “Having been around sports so much in my life, it was an interesting way to tie it in and business seemed like a useful career focus.”

After she graduated, Birkins headed off to Zebulon to work for a minor league baseball team, the Carolina Mudcats, to utilize her new degree and minor.

“During that time, I also met my future husband, Kurt,” Birkins said. “Because he was playing baseball professionally, we really got to know each other through distance and talking on the phone. Once we realized how serious we were, I left my sports marketing job to be with Kurt and got married.”

Birkins always knew that she wanted to have a family, and they were excited to welcome their daughters several years later.

“Being a mom is the most amazing feeling. It’s everything you hope it could be and more,” Birkins said. “It’s also the most challenging, chaotic and exhausting thing, but that’s only because your love for them knows no bounds. It’s hands down the best job I could ever ask for.”  

After having her second daughter, Birkins decided to explore working with children.

“I started an art class out of my home with 10 kids. I realized how much I enjoyed working with them, and also started volunteering at Whitaker Elementary,” Birkins said. “I worked with students that benefited from having more one-on-one time. I saw the impact that made which was very satisfying. Not too long after, I went to Knollwood Preschool and worked with their readiness class. I saw myself really being drawn to education at that point which had always been an interest of mine. With having my own children, it also allowed me the flexibility that I needed too.”

During the summer months, Birkins started working at the various summer camps at her alma mater, Summit School.

“Jeff Turner who runs the programs for the summer camps had mentioned there were openings for the upcoming school year (2015),” Birkins said. “I was excited at the opportunity to go back to Summit. I met with Carrie Malloy who was the director of the Triad Academy about teaching there. I was intrigued at the opportunity to become trained in the Orton-Gillingham Academy to help students with the tools they needed to learn who struggled because of dyslexia. I was blown away when I participated in Camp Pathfinder with students that also came from other schools. The progress they made in just five weeks was mind blowing. If I could be part of their journey to gain confidence and learn how to utilize the skills we taught them, it was such a rewarding experience.”  

Summit is one of only two schools in the state, and one of only 19 in the United States to receive the Orton-Gillingham Academy accreditation.

What has made Birkins such a special educator to her students and their families has been her passion to constantly learn how to be better herself. Birkins completed the Multisensory Math 1 and 2 courses with Marilyn Zecher. Birkins then added the Multisensory Math Practicum of Teaching to her resumé. 

As a certified multisensory math practitioner and multisensory math instructional coach/mentor, Birkins loves her role as the math content coordinator for the Triad Division at Summit.

“Seeing how beneficial the multi-sensory approach is through research and hands-on application, it is wonderful to implement it with students,” Birkins said. “Math is my favorite subject, and a full-time passion to try and inspire other students to love it, too. I work primarily with students in grades first through sixth.”

“Coming up with a way to make teaching math fun and accessible for all students has been rewarding on so many levels,” Birkins said. “When you see it click for your students, you know you’ve done it right. As a parent myself, I know that no child will be the same, and that’s the greatest part. Kids know when you invest and believe in them. I’m lucky that is something I get to do in my profession.”