{"id":20728,"date":"2019-06-04T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=20728"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:38:00","slug":"empowerment-via-footwear-kari-thompson-mccormick-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/empowerment-via-footwear-kari-thompson-mccormick-97\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowerment Via Footwear: Kari Thompson McCormick &#039;97"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><blockquote>\n<p><strong>Empowerment Via Footwear: Kari Thompson McCormick &#8217;97<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n<div   data-size='extra_large'  data-lightbox_size='large'  data-animation='slide'  data-conditional_play=''  data-ids='20858,20859'  data-video_counter='0'  data-autoplay='false'  data-bg_slider='false'  data-slide_height=''  data-handle='av_slideshow'  data-interval='5'  data-class=' avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock  '  data-el_id=''  data-css_id=''  data-scroll_down=''  data-control_layout='av-control-default'  data-custom_markup=''  data-perma_caption=''  data-autoplay_stopper=''  data-image_attachment=''  data-min_height='0px'  data-default-height='100'  class='avia-slideshow avia-slideshow-1  av-control-default av-default-height-applied avia-slideshow-extra_large av_slideshow  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock   avia-slide-slider '  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><ul class='avia-slideshow-inner ' style='padding-bottom: 66.6666666667%;' ><li  class=' slide-1 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Kari-McCormick_021-X4-1500x1000.jpg' width='1500' height='1000' title='Kari McCormick_021-X4' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><li  class=' slide-2 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Kari-McCormick_035-X4-1500x1000.jpg' width='1500' height='1000' title='Kari McCormick_035-X4' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><\/ul><div class='avia-slideshow-arrows avia-slideshow-controls'><a href='#prev' class='prev-slide' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue87c' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'>Previous<\/a><a href='#next' class='next-slide' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue87d' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'>Next<\/a><\/div><div class='avia-slideshow-dots avia-slideshow-controls'><a href='#1' class='goto-slide active' >1<\/a><a href='#2' class='goto-slide ' >2<\/a><\/div><\/div><br \/>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">From teaching, to running a business, to the challenges of motherhood, McCormick is striving to make a difference in children&#8217;s mental health development.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On a spring break trip to\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">Florida in 2006 during the <\/span>famous Daytona Beach Bike Week, elementary school teacher Kari McCormick saw an enterprising idea amid the sun, sandals and <span class=\"s1\">bandana-clad bikers: handmade, bandana-covered flip-flops. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The next year, McCormick launched <span class=\"s1\">a side flip-flop business \u2014 Bella K \u2014 that grew until 2010, when she had <\/span>her son, Cole. It wasn\u2019t long after Cole was born that McCormick could tell something wasn&#8217;t right. Sunlight elicited screams. The motion of a stroller or car seat was torture. The feeling of bedding would keep Cole from sleeping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">McCormick\u2019s skills as an educator and motivator served her well as the founder of a fledgling footwear business, but these skills kicked into serious overdrive during Cole\u2019s early struggles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWhen Cole was a baby, I was a mom on the hunt to figure things out, and a mom who\u2019s driven in that way is hard to stop,\u201d McCormick says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">When Cole was 19 months old, a pediatrician diagnosed him with sensory processing disorder, and McCormick began to research the brain and neuro<span class=\"s1\">logical system. Following the diagnosis <\/span>and McCormick\u2019s research on the subject, Cole began to recover and manage his condition. Soon, McCormick recognized that Cole\u2019s journey could benefit other kids:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cI learned how to change our thoughts and feelings on a more neurological level,\u201d McCormick says. \u201cI also learned how much easier it is for young children to make these behaviors an automatic response when you start teaching them before the age of <span class=\"s1\">12. Even though [Cole] had sensory <\/span>issues, these concepts that worked on him could easily transfer over to children and help them build healthy <span class=\"s1\">self-esteem.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">During Cole\u2019s ordeal, McCormick revived Bella K with a new mission: fostering young people\u2019s healthy mental development. Once Cole was back on track, McCormick used funds from Bella K to launch Selfie Style, a sponsored workshop in which young girls hear from inspiring speakers and engage in empowering activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cCole\u2019s experience sparked something in me,\u201d McCormick says. \u201cI want <span class=\"s1\">to use [Bella K] as a vehicle to share that spark \u2014 to make children feel <\/span>cared for and brave in the way Cole eventually felt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n<div  class='av-buildercomment   '><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[342,1265,1914,2577,2784],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-bella-k","tag-flip-flops","tag-mental-health","tag-sensory-processing-disorder","tag-summer-2019-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Kari-McCormick_021-X4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20728"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}