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BURLINGTON — It didn’t matter that her parents never went to college or that she’d never been outside Washington.

Laurel Browning’s mother and father had been raised in Duvall. Browning, like them, attended the local high school. But while her parents planted deep roots in the small, inland community, Browning was born with a wanderlust and a strong desire to help people.

Next month, Browning will become Burlington-Edison School District’s superintendent. Her focused path through life has led her to exotic places and has helped shape her sense of community responsibility to this day.

“I came from a community where everyone was involved in everyone’s lives,” said Browning, who is currently the B-E assistant superintendent. “Everyone supported each other. You need a barn built? We built your barn.”

Small-town values drew her to Burlington 14 years ago when she became principal of Lucille Umbarger Elementary School.

“When I came here, I was going to a community that was really a lot like I left,” she said. “They are generous. They are committed to education and to the young people.”

Browning wants to continue that commitment and give young minds the tools they need to compete in today’s global economy.

It took a while for Browning to settle on education as her profession.

While she knew she wanted to help people, she didn’t find her true calling until she was attending class at Western Washington University.

“I wanted to find a career where I could add value to people’s lives,” she said.

She bounced around a few ideas — psychology, design, architecture — then settled on education.

At Western, she met her husband, Peter, who now works as Skagit County’s health department director.

Browning recalls living on the cheap to be able to afford travel. Her first international trip was to Mexico when she was 23.

“I really wanted to understand people,” she said. “You can’t do that if you don’t get out there.”

Since then, she’s traveled to Borneo, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and all over Europe.

She and Peter also added to their family — a boy and a girl, Blake, 9, and Piper, 8.

Browning said students today, as in her day, face the same difficulty of finding their calling.

“There’s always the challenge of trying to find what you like to do and have people believe in you,” she said. “All of those things that help them explore who they are, we didn’t have that growing up.”

Students today are far better prepared than she was, she said. Today, B-E High students explore their life options through a process called PAWS: Portfolio of Academic and Work Skills.

Students take trips to college campuses as part of the school day, something unheard of when Browning attended high school in the early 80’s.

Times have changed, she said. Browning wants to engender in students a love of learning and a desire to better themselves after high school.

“We have doubled our Advanced Placement courses,” she said. “We have opportunities in our career center like no other. We want to expose kids to all of the different careers post high school. Students need to have some kind of education past high school to make a decent income, whether that’s trade school or a two-year college. There’s multiple paths.”

But to offer a solid education, teachers and administration alike must continue to improve their skills, she said. Browning wants to motivate from within by being a strong leader.

“I have a passion for leadership,” she said. “How do you develop great leaders? How do you help the people find their strengths and build on their strengths? We know people stay at organizations because of other people.”

The district’s consultant for the superintendent search, John Fotheringham, has said that he’s tried to recruit Browning away from the district in his searches for other districts in the state.

But Browning said she was never tempted.

“Look at where we are,” she said. “I stayed in Burlington because of the commitment from the community to the schools.”

Despite the recent failures of school bond issues, Browning remains undeterred.

“After 14 years, I’ve helped build this with everybody,” she said. “I want to be part of where we’re going for the next 10 years. ... I believe in the people here. I just want to build on that. And I feel like I have a lot to offer.”

• Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or at .