From a young age I have been interested in working with children. At birthdays, family gatherings, and holidays, I was always the one watching and playing with all of the younger kids. In high school, I began babysitting and made my first earnings by babysitting for a lovely family after school each day. More recently, I have been interested in child development and am studying psychology to understand the milestones of development and understand how children can be supported early on to enable their full potential and support their emotional, physical, and intellectual development. Most recently, I worked as an Enrichment teacher for a summer camp program. As such, I was responsible for a group of 25 kids and lead STEM based lessons and crafts. My position as a summer teacher has not only augmented my respect towards teachers, as I have understood how challenging it is to guide, observe, and mentor a cohort of kids, but it has also helped me build an invaluable set of skills. In my experiences, I’ve learned to be attentive, vigilant, patient, observant, and understanding. The emotional lives of children are just, if not more, complex than those of adults. They must face difficult and big emotions having only a limited set of skills to manage them. As such, I prioritize listening and respecting the feelings that children I work with have. What may seem trivial to the adult perspective may be much more significant for a younger mind. When facing challenges, I always start by listening. Most often, we just need to be heard. In addition to emotional safety, I also prioritize situational safety by always observing behavior and context as many things can be prevented when de-escalated early on. Caregiving is at the heart of every relationship as we all require someone to rely on. As a person, I am very sympathetic, understanding, welcoming, supportive, and reliable – all aspects that I’ve learned through my personal, professional, and academic experiences and believe are vital to proper caregiving.
