Meet the Team Leaders: Sara Craige

Sara Craige, CalSERVES Team Leader at Bellevue

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sara Craige is the Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary School and this is her second year working in the CalSERVES program. She graduated in 2011 from Penn State University with a degree in Elementary Education and applied to CalSERVES in order to make a difference in children’s lives.

This year, Sara hopes to gain new relationships with her team members and pass down her experience as a veteran AmeriCorps member to the rest of her team at Bellevue. Sara is also striving to grow professionally in the education field and gain experience working with kids for her future career goals.

As for her new position as a Team Leader, Sara states that she loves everything about her job, especially getting to bounce from grade to grade and work with kids of all ages. Sara likes both the creativity and the challenges that come up in her position - she loves coming up with new ideas, activities, and different ways to present information to the classroom leaders and the AmeriCorps Scholars.

Additionally, Sara immensely enjoys working with the entire Bellevue team. She appreciates how different each AmeriCorps member and classroom leader is and how much they have to offer the students at Bellevue. She states that every team member is always looking out for each other and always supporting each other which makes for a coherent and friendly team dynamic. Sara is also grateful that she gets to work with such an inspirational, dedicated, hilarious, creative, and determined supervising teacher. She says that they have a great partnership that is always keeping the team and students’ best interest at heart.

During her time in CalSERVES, Sara hopes to inspire the students she works with to become the best possible version of themselves. She wants to show her kids that there are so many opportunities out there for them and that high school isn't the end, that there is a whole world out there filled with possibilities and opportunities. She wants to show her students that they can achieve any goal or dream that they have with hard work, dedication, and confidence in themselves.

As for advice for future Team Leaders or Service Scholars, Sara says:

• Wear sneakers on Wednesdays because you will be running the mile
• Dance whenever there is music playing because kids will join you and it will always put a smile on your face
• You will encounter "garbage juice" from the trash cans at snack so just remember to wash your hands
• Color coordinate with your team (it’s fun and shows unity)
• Pick a Starbucks near you and learn to love it cause you will stop by every morning
• If you go home with marker on you, chalk or remnants of snack it means you had a good day
• Appreciate your team members every day, cause you'll need things from them and the more you show them love the easier it is to work with them!

By: Jacquelene Bennett, AmeriCorps Content Leader and Sara Craige, AmeriCorps Team Leader, Bellevue Elementary