As a school psychologist intern I have all of the same responsibilities and duties as a school psychologist. I am independent in this role with my time divided between two elementary schools. I do special education testing through cognitive and social-emotional testing. I write IEPs, add services, and goals based on the student's needs in order to be most successful at school. I assist students with various disabilities ranging from autism to learning disabilities to fragile X. I look at various accommodations and modifications that are needed to be provided at school in order for students to access their education. I do individual and group mental health counseling. I observe behaviors, offer and monitor behavioral interventions, and write plans in order to change/modify behaviors that are interfering with the student's education. I do crisis work with students experiencing trauma. I consult and collaborate with two special education teams, families, and administrators in order to ensure that the mental health needs of our students are met. Lastly, I partner with community partnerships in order to provide wrap-around services for our student's most in need.

I co-teach tap, jazz, and have taught hip-hop to girls and boys of all ages. The ages that I have taught dance have ranged from 5-16. I currently teach 5 45 minute classes throughout the week and am also helping with our Studio's competition team. I help choreograph dances in preparation for our annual recital in which we do a tap and jazz dance per class. I have received a minor in dance from the University of Colorado in Boulder where I focused on ballet, african dance, and hip-hop. I took classes in dance theory and dance history. I have received my training for 19 years in tap, jazz, lyrical, and ballet at Studio M. I have also received training from Longmont Dance Academy for two years. I have attended L.A. Dance Magic, Termaine, and New York Dance Alliance for dance conventions to increase my training. I have also attended a summer intensive in Washington D.C. to increase my training in dance. I have performed twice at Disneyland with my studio and at local venues in the Colorado area. In high school I choreographed the musical: "Horton Hears a Who".

In this position I worked with two other universities across the country to do cognitive testing on children with various disabilities ranging from autism, fragile X, and down syndrome. In this research they are continuing to measure if an IPAD measure can look at IQ easier and in more depth than our current standardized measures. In this position I had to grow in my assessment skills, have patience, and use various skills in order to work with children and adults with disabilities. This position provided me with a lot of experience in order to prepare me for internship.

Currently working with Dr. Gloria Miller where we are researching the impact of increasing family engagement with refugee families at a high school in northern Colorado. I have attended family meetings, collected and analyzed data, and administered class presentations about our study.

In this study we worked with seeing if a type of group therapy had a decrease of post-partum depression for young, teen mothers. I collected participants and helped administered the surveys to the mothers. I met weekly with the research team and we discussed results.

For this year I worked along side the special education team where I had a case load of 4 students. I helped some children with physical disabilities and worked with some students that were dealing with dyslexia. I also provided support to a Kindergarten classroom during reading and writing time. I participated in staff meetings and provided insight on the specific students I worked with.

Early Childhood Educator