In her soul, Ruthie Chen Ousley ’09 is an artist.
Born in Sacramento, California, and raised in Shelburne, Vermont, Ousley was a serious ballerina from a young age. But she was also serious about chemistry. Coupled with her desire to connect with people, she always assumed that becoming a doctor was the ideal career path for her.
While she juggled a list of impressive college acceptances as a high school senior, it was the strong ballet program at Duke that caught her eye more than the premed track, promising Ousley a chance to be creative outside of organic chemistry classes. A trial class with a Duke Dance Program professor sold her, and she packed her bags for Durham.
Duke gave Ousley a chance to explore her artistic side. She discovered she enjoyed manifesting her creativity in a tactile way, designing and constructing costumes for numerous Duke Dance productions. Despite her love of the arts, she remained committed to the idea that medicine was her most clear path to success. However, a lab experience at Duke University Medical Center during her junior and senior years focused her on science – an area where she could stretch her creativity, just like ballet and costume designing.
“Participating in the act of research, and seeing what it is really, is very different from what you’re doing in classes,” she says. “It was the first time I got to understand how science is actually enacted. It was very eye-opening.”
Taking time to reflect on her future, Ousley took a year after graduating to travel to universities around the country as a leadership consultant for her sorority, Chi Omega, before pursuing an opportunity as an educator with Teach for America. Ousley was stationed in the Bronx, New York, and approached teaching eager to apply her own lightbulb moment with science to her middle school students.
“I think I always had in the back of my mind that recollection from my experience at Duke – that I had spent all these years thinking I knew what science was, and then finally having that transformative experience of participating in research, realizing how different that is.”
Leadership in Teach for America took notice of Ousley’s classroom success. She transitioned into Teach for America’s teacher development program, where she worked at both the regional and national level to develop STEM curricula and professional development for teachers to help students learn to love science. After nine years with Teach for America, however, Ousley felt an itch to seek something new.
A mentor encouraged her to look at Lego Education, a division of the Lego Group with more than 45 years of experience enhancing classroom learning. Ousley was a perfect fit for a role that focused on teacher professional development, helping educators confidently use Lego Education products in the classroom to drive STEM learning.
Ousley wanted to stretch herself even more, and moved into a business and product-focused role, eventually being promoted to her current role as head of product for science, a position that allows her to unite her experience as a product owner and her background in educational development. She’s been able to drive the launch of exciting new products, including their latest, Lego Education Science, which facilitates science learning for students K through 8.
As Ousley has moved up with Lego Education, she and her family also have moved abroad, settling in Billund, Denmark, the global headquarters of Lego. Ousley loves the overall child-centric focus of Billund (“You really feel the ethos of this care about play and kids in the community”), although after five years, she still finds the Danish language challenging.
“My daughter [now 8] has lived in Denmark longer than she had lived in the States. She is definitely picking up Danish faster than me,” she laughs.
As Ousley continues to work with Lego Education to develop innovative classroom solutions, she’s quick to give credit where credit is due. “I give a ton of credit to Duke. I came in very narrow-mindedly focused on premed,” she admits. “I did get so much exposure to so many interesting people and ideas while I was there, and I think that’s something I’ve continued to carry with me today.”