By NATHAN LYNCH

Special to the Journal Tribune

KENNEBUNK — Some high school graduates will enter college with little idea of what they plan to do over the next four years, looking to try out a number of paths to find a calling.

Kennebunk High School senior Kylie Reynolds won’t have that problem. She will enter the University of Maine at Farmington’s Honors College to study special education for children, after having already worked in the Special Education and Life Skills Department in the Middle School of the Kennebunks, the Big Brother, Big Sister program, at Sweetser and at Little Footsteps in Saco. She has also done work in senior care.

Reynolds did all of this while taking AP classes, IB classes, holding a retail job, and caring for her large family everyday.

Her family life has done a good deal to inform her chosen career path. Her parents, Marcia Walker and Warren Reynolds, have taken in more than 20 children through foster care, many of whom have special needs. Reynolds’ brother Mark has fetal alcohol syndrome and ADHD, and her little sister has oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD. Reynolds watches them in the afternoons, taking them to after-school programs and says that taking responsibility for her little siblings led her to look into special education as a career.

“I guess my brother has always looked up to me,” she said. “I really like working with him and the way he thinks. … I’ve gone to the Special Olympics every time he’s gone and I’ve been in his special education classroom (since) kindergarten.”

Reynolds’ empathy for her siblings connects her with other special needs children, and she says that if more people could reach out the way she does, children with special needs might not feel misunderstood.

“Don’t just look at them like something is wrong. Get to know them,”

she said.

Reynolds’ mother Marcia, now divorced, continues to provide guidance for Kylie that enables her to become so involved and not become overwhelmed. Marcia helped her get involved with senior care, and pushed her to find an internship in helping children with special needs.

“My mom has been my main inspiration … my rock, my main support,” Reynolds said.

As she heads off to school, Reynolds says she’ll miss seeing her siblings every day, but she plans on staying in touch. Her dad just bought her an iPad, and Mark has an iPad as part of his therapy, so they plan on doing plenty of FaceTime until she comes home for break.