After School with Amandolin
Ocracoke School hosts an after-school program that lets children attend different activities or events during the week. This school year, and possibly the next, Amandolin Webb has happily taken up the leadership of this program. So, to welcome her into this program wholeheartedly, I’ve asked her a few questions about how it’s like running this program.
After asking about motivation, and what hers was, it was easy to find that Amandolin loves working with children. Her heart would be nothing if not devoted to children.
Amandolin spent her college summers on Ocracoke, then moved here after graduating with a degree in business and economics.
“I wanted challenges after finishing school, and missed it. I got out of school, only to be bored, stuck waiting tables,” she said. Hearing this, you can pull out that Amandolin really wished to use her education on something more effective. Which did happen!
Her favorite part about the program is how her days can be flipped around from bad to good. After seeing the children, you can really just go from sad to glad! “Happy to feel appreciated” is one thing she claimed made her feel good when hosting the program after school. “I love being able to see the difference that I’ve made, mainly with the younger children,” she said.
Although, it was not how she originally expected it all to be. She did not anticipate it to be such laboring work, which is why it shocked her when going into the summer program. It didn’t make her sad though, she still adored the outcomes! “I had no idea of what I was getting myself into” is how she expressed the feeling of comparing herself now, and herself back to before she started.
People are wondering if Amandolin will be continuing this act throughout next year. Her answer to this is absolutely! It has changed her opinion on how working with children really is, and she found the hobby and workplace to be rather rewarding! "I do the job because I really enjoy it, not solely for the paycheck,” Amandolin said.
The after-school program, which is funded by two grants from the 21st Century Community Learning Center and the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation, has changed a lot from what it used to be, and Amandolin knows this. She says that this program has been adding in a variety of enrichment activities, including a foreign language club with Ms. Jeanie (Ocracoke School's 4th grade teacher), culture and crafts with Ms. Flavia (Ocracoke School's ESL teacher), and service learning projects. The first community service project was taking Valentines to the island's shut-ins. New after-school employees Lauren Strohl (who's teaching a newspaper club) and Robert Chestnut (who's teaching art) are people who just come in and gladly share their talents!
“It just adds fulfillment into the program, to have so many new enrichment activities," Amandolin said.
School can be boring sometimes, but it’s not the building that makes it that way. This is shown when everyone is let out of their last classes and all join together in the after school program. The program easily takes children and makes them happier than they were sitting in a classroom. Whether the happiness comes from getting all of their work done early while seeing friends, or if it’s coming from younger children who are running and having fun around the playground until the next activity comes along, it’s all enjoyable in after school. And if it isn’t then Amandolin Webb is sure to change that!
