Greetings followers!
I’ve been with The Youth Foundation since September 2010 and I have had the pleasure of dabbling in many areas of the Youth Foundation team, growing from administrative tasks within PwrHrs, to managing scholarships and providing a supportive mentor to our Scholarship students to forming academic support for the high school-aged Community Coaches through DREAM First, future-focused programming. As one of the bilingual full-time staff member, I had the opportunity to expand my horizons within the Youth Foundation on the Magic Bus Early Childhood Program by filling in for Magic Bus staff members. The small amount of exposure I received sparked something within me and, by a stroke of luck, I am now able to work full-time within that program!
When I first discovered that my focus would no longer be high school and college students, I was worried about losing the connections to students that I spent the past year cultivating, especially since I loved being able to help students envision and dream about their futures, and offer them supports and advice so as to how to reach them. My first day working within the program of the Magic Bus, I made the long journey from my comfortable Edwards office environment to the Dotsero trailer park. As I first stepped a foot on the bus, nervous energy churned inside my stomach, or was it the Starbucks spinach feta wrap I had scarfed down on the drive over? How would I shift to a three to five year old-mindset after spending the past year working with those on the verge of adulthood? How would their parents trust and relate to me, as a Caucasian woman with no children? How could I fill the shoes of the former teacher, the program’s director, Deb Dutmer?
But as the kiddos started climbing the stairs to the bus, their neon-green Magic Bus backpacks in tow, their innocent smiles and excited exclamations of “Hola Maestra!” immediately melted my nerves into enthusiasm about the day’s lessons. I spent the morning observing Maria Calvo, who I was extremely nervous about letting her down, as she has been an expert in the program for years. I was impressed at her patience; Maria didn’t push the kids past their limits, but gave them the space and time to absorb small lessons, as I’ve already seen that too much excitement sometimes gets small children into sensory overload mode! But by the end of the day, I was leading my first class, and having a blast singing songs about the days of the week, counting with the children, and reading stories.
Three weeks later, I am so in love with the Magic Bus Program. I love the playfulness of it, and there is truly nothing more gratifying than seeing kids understanding English for the first time, recognizing their numbers, writing their names. There is so much excitement and passion within each moment, from the teachers, to the students, to the parents, to the community members that smile and wave at the sight of a multi-colored school bus with shapes, colors, and kids playing all over it. “When you’re driving the Magic Bus, it’s kind of like driving the ice cream truck,” said Maria Calvo, on my second day. “You have to be really peppy.”
But being peppy as a member of the Magic Bus team just comes naturally, as the innocent, child-like enthusiasm simply is contagious.
I cannot express how excited I am to be a part of early childhood in the Vail Valley. With the merge to the Vail Valley Foundation, our resources are expanding, our team is increasingly stronger, and our limits are nearing the sky.
Dana Bronfman, Magic Bus Program Operations Coordinator
No comments:
Post a Comment