Employer: North Ridgeville (Ohio) City Schools
Title: Director of Student Services; OAPSA President
What is the most rewarding aspect of your work?
It would nearly be impossible for me to pick the most rewarding aspect of the work that I do working in Student Services. I am privileged to spend time in meetings with families when they feel vulnerable and overwhelmed by the process of their child being identified for services and then have the opportunity to build rapport with families to work collaboratively and celebrate the successes that their child has over time. I find that as I have grown in my role as an Administrator, I have assumed the role of advocacy not only for our students and families, but also on behalf of my staff who work to provide engaging, uplifting, and challenging instruction to help students grow academically, functionally, and socially. When you have the opportunity to hire a young teacher and see them flourish as they build capacity and share their successes with their students, this is a cherished and rewarding moment that I work hard to remember for the difficult days when I feel most challenged.
What is the greatest benefit of being a NAPSA member?
I feel that NAPSA provides its members current information to support us in our day to day work. It is wonderful to know that there is a network of others that we can reach out to and that we have advocacy at this level to support the work we do within our own districts.