CA Pride - Danielle Terry

It is always quite special when we have an alumni join our staff. Danielle Terry graduated from CA (then The St. Christopher School) after completing 3rd grade. We all were excited for her when she graduated from JMU with a Social Work degree. I was especially happy when I found out that she was seeking an interim job for one year prior to going to grad school. She was hoping to have an opportunity to get experience working with children. Perfect! We had just the job for her as our Office Assistant along with doing some substitute teaching. This has given her quite a variety of experiences interacting with young children.

Ms. Terry has proven to be such a valuable asset to our staff. I have to commend her for being flexible and adaptable because she truly never knows what she will be doing when she arrives in the morning. Multitasking just doesn’t seem to be a problem for her which is a really good thing when you are working in a school. One of the first things I observed and appreciated about Ms. Terry is her ability to immediately put a child at ease. Whether the child is hurt, sick, or just having a difficult day, she has this warm, positive way of engaging the child in conversation and reassuring him or her. She is able help the child become calm and settled. Over the course of this year, she has gotten to know every student in the school.

During her studies at JMU, Ms. Terry worked as a counselor and mentor with foster children. I asked her to do a workshop with our 4th and 5th grade students on the topic of bullying. I sat in and I was impressed with the variety of ways she used to engage our students on this topic. The goal was to get them to think about their actions and how they treat each other as well as how to protect themselves when they are being bullied.

In addition to keeping up with all of the office activity and paperwork, Ms. Terry has lunch duty with third grade on Mondays and occasionally other days. She has probably subbed or helped out in some way or the other in every classroom this year. Teachers love having her come in as they know she is conscientious and will have a positive experience with the students.

Ms. Terry has also taught two Adventure Kids classes: Media Club and, currently, Volleyball. Her technology skills have been very helpful to administrators, teachers and students. She created a wonderful slide/video presentation for our recent auction and has begun the process of electronic storage of our records for us.

Ms. Terry will be leaving us on May 23 to begin a graduate program in Social Work at University of South Carolina. I know all of you join me in wishing her well as she continues her studies toward her goal of a career in Social Work. Having observed her working with our students (as well as our staff and parents) this year, I know she will excel in her chosen field. What a great role model she has proven to be for our young students. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.

CA PRIDE - BETH LYDON

I think Beth Lydon must really like a challenge! Late last spring I decided to create a new position, Director of Advancement, by combining two part time positions: Development and Marketing. Her job description basically says she is to handle everything that has to do with promoting the school through marketing, volunteer activities, and fundraising. Needless to say the task list for a job like this is long and varied. I am delighted that Mrs. Lydon not only accepted the challenge of taking on the newly created position, but she did so with a positive, determined commitment to advance CA in every way she can.

As is true with so many of our CA staff, I first got to know her as an active parent volunteer helping with class activities and PTO events. Eventually I became aware that she has a financial background through her JMU degree and previous work experience. As you might guess, the teachers enlisted her to become a substitute teacher. Last year, I found out what a conscientious, dedicated worker she is when the did some long term subbing for us. I was very excited that she was interested in the Director of Advancement position.

About 5 seconds after accepting the position, Mrs. Lydon immediately went to work on organizing our 8th annual golf tournament which was quite a success in October. Initial planning of the 12th annual auction began before the golf tournament was over. Simultaneously, Mrs. Lydon launched our annual giving campaign, sought advertising opportunities in the community, and began a series of meetings with parents to revitalize our CAPS organization. Obviously, she has to be able to keep a lot of balls in the air at the same time. She is just now wrapping up the auction which was a fantastic event for CA. The auctioneer had hardly cried out the last “Sold!” when she was already discussing ideas for future events. It is fair to say that her job is never done...she has to be able to keep moving on to the next event or opportunity.

I appreciate the fact that Mrs. Lydon takes advantage of opportunities to learn about new ideas for events, projects, and communication through professional development webinars and meetings, talking to people in the community, talking to our own faculty and parents, and researching online. She just recently joined me at a regional VAIS meeting which gave her the chance to network with her counterparts from other schools. She knows there are many great ideas and is on the watch for those that are likely to be best for our CA community

Through a series of meetings with parents, Mrs. Lydon has helped identify some of the types of events, activities, and means of communication that our parents want. She also has begun to work with parents who are interested in planning some of the CAPS events. Some of these ideas will be implemented before the end of the school year and during the summer. Preliminary planning is beginning for next year. Being a busy parent herself, Mrs. Lydon understands all of the demands on our parents and values the time and effort from all of our volunteers. Finding ways to facilitate our having family events so that we can grow together as a school community is a priority for her. Now that is what I call fostering a love of learning.