Welcome

Hello, my name is Kelly and welcome to my blog. Here on my blog, you’ll find information on my career goals, interests, and links to such things as my resume.

I am a hard worker and dedicated to any and every task that is given to me. Sure troubles may arise as does with every person, but as quoted by Martin Luther King Jr., faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. And all of my first steps have brought me to where I am today.

I invite you to browse through my blog and see me in a nutshell.

Letter of Intent

To Whom It May Concern,

Thank you for taking the time to look through my virtual portfolio. The purpose of this portfolio is to show those who are reading that I am thoroughly interested in working with young children and learning about their cognitive and social development, and that I am a person who is goal-oriented, determined, self-motivated.

In the past I have worked with children as both a camp counselor and also an Independent Researcher at the Stevens Cooperative School for a senior project in high school. Both opportunities allowed me to work hand-in-hand with children who were two to six years old. As an Independent Researcher, I was able to study the social interactions among preschool and kindergarten-aged children and then present my findings to my fellow teachers and classmates. Doing this project allowed me to discover my extreme interest in Child Development.

I think that it is especially important to focus on the development of young children, because there are so many social and cognitive advances that happen in the first few years of life that impact the rest of the life that they live. I would like to have the opportunity to contribute to the field of Child Development and continue to learn more about what children go through as they grow.

Sincerely,

Kelly Leacock

Biography

I spent the first eight years of my schooling in the public school educational system. I was a straight A student from the time of kindergarten, making High Honor Roll all four quarters of every school year. I was the class Valedictorian both my elementary and middle schools – the first Valedictorian of my middle school because it had just been built and opened for the first year.

While in school one of my favorite classes was Spanish, though unfortunately, most of what I learned what just vocabulary. Because of this it’s one of my own goals to learn Spanish, not only to keep up with the economy, but to also keep up with my favorite Hispanic friends and get involved in the conversations I’m forced not to have.

When I graduated from middle school, I traversed the invisible line from the public, to the private school system to The Hudson School. It was such a big change, that I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to get used to it. I had to wake up at 5:30 every morning in order to catch the train to school, and I wouldn’t get back home until roughly 5:00 p.m. the earliest. At my high school, it was the first time that I ever got a C on my report card, and I cried when I saw it. It was a preparatory college high school, and the school lived up to its title. I learned how to work through over three hours of straight homework, and run on five hours of sleep. I learned how to manage my time and how to organize myself. I reached as high as a 3.84 GPA during my junior year, and was at the top of my French class, which I had begun taking my freshman year and continued on to my senior year.

Please click here to read more of my Biography...

Kelly's Cover Letter and Resume

Here is where you may take a look at my Cover Letter and Resume.

Cover Letter: please click here to view

Resume: please click here to view

Academic Experience and The Educational Opportunity Program

As a college student at Rider University, I was accepted to the university through the Educational Opportunity Program, or EOP. The EOP program is for students who are New Jersey residents, are going to attend a four-year college within New Jersey, and demonstrate extraordinary academic talent who might not be able to attend college due to financial reasons.

The summer of my freshman year I was required to attend a five week program for EOP students at Rider University where I took four courses: Speech Communications, Expository Writing, Race, Class, and Gender, and Strategies for Success. These four classes I continued to take into my Freshman year.

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James McBride

The EOP program presented an event called the Annual Distinguished Writers Series which went through its 10th year this year. For the event our distinguished writer was James McBride, whose books, The Color of Water, Miracle at St. Anna, and Song Yet Sung, were read by the EOP students of 2009 for our writing classes. For my Expository Writing class we read Miracle at St. Anna and wrote papers about the book. For the 10th Annual Distinguished Writers Series I and six others were chosen to read our papers for Mr. McBride.

Writing Samples

In this portion of my blog includes two writing samples. The first is my paper on James McBride's book Miracle at St. Anna of which I read at the 10th Annual Distinguished Writers Series.

The second writing sample is my first research paper for my Sociologial Imagination course, of which I received a perfect socre.

Theme Paper based on Miracle at St. Anna

An excerpt of my Research Paper for my Sociological Imagination course