Katherine Bellman eyes a teaching career

EDITOR’S NOTE: Viktoria Arnett of Fredericktown recently was selected as the Knox Educational Service Center’s 2026 Franklin B. Walter All-Scholastic Award recipient. The ESC is profiling the other outstanding seniors nominated for the award.

Katherine Bellman does not like idle time.

“I’m not a sit-around person. I like to keep busy and help others,” she said.

That attitude is one reason that Bellman, a senior at Fredericktown High School and the Knox County Career Center, is poised to receive honors and rewards this month.

On May 8, she collected an associate degree in business management from Central Ohio Technical College, earned while at KCCC.

On May 15, Bellman will be one of five valedictorians scheduled to speak at Fredericktown’s Class of 2026 commencement.

She will return to the career center on May 20 to participate in the school’s awards program.

Bellman, KCCC’s senior nominee for the ESC’s 2026 Franklin B. Walter All-Scholastic Award, is headed to Ohio University in August to pursue a degree in early childhood education.

“I have been volunteering in first-grade classrooms this year,” Bellman said. “That helped me find confidence in my decision to pursue early childhood education.”

After graduation she plans to apply for a teaching job, preferably kindergarten, in Knox County.

“I would love to teach in the same school as my mom, an intervention specialist at Fredericktown Elementary,” Bellman said.

Her father, Nate, is a member of the Fredericktown Board of Education and a former athletic director.

KCCC guidance counselor Clarissa Bush is certain that Bellman is destined for success.

“Katherine is an excellent student who makes maximum use of her time. She also comes from a really good role-model family,” Bush said.

At Fredericktown, Bellman participated in varsity track, cross country and basketball and was a member of Drama Club and National Honor Society.

While she dislikes idle time, Bellman said she is always eager for a challenge.

As the basketball team’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023-24 and 2024-25, she was assigned to guard the opposing team’s top scorer.

“I wanted that challenge but I had to be sure I was up to it,” Bellman said, crediting the support of her teammates.

“I grew up in a very competitive family and that included Wiffle Ball in the backyard,” she said, smiling.