After 36 years, educator Donna Shaffer knows the recipe for encouraging a child’s success.
What does it mean to be successful? Donna Shaffer, educational coordinator for the children’s home, defines success as “finding a meaningful job to support yourself and your family.” Her goal is for all children’s home graduates to achieve this while “always trying to improve themselves.”
After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, Donna taught fifth and sixth grade for 12 years before coming to the children’s home in 1981 at the request of a college roommate, who served as the director at the time. She tutored kids five nights a week, and her husband worked as a house parent. Donna started in her current role five years later, and has held that position ever since.
Today, Donna works with children’s home kids and alumni to ensure academic and vocational success. Her platitudes – “study smarter, not harder” and “where there’s a will, there’s an ‘A’” – aren’t just catchy sound bites, but time-tested mantras.
“Whatever works and gets the job done, we try it,” she said. “We” refers to her “dream team” of tutors and school district teachers.
“I love collaborating with teachers,” she said, although she now communicates with them more through email. It’s one of the many changes to education she has seen over her career. The way kids learn today is more technologically-oriented than it used to be, but the communication skills they must learn to function well in school, and in the world at large, have not changed much.
For many kids who come to the children’s home, it’s their first experience with boundaries and structure. “I remember one student who had difficulties at school and was surprised when he came home that we already knew and had an ‘action’ plan for change,” Donna recalls.
While it can be difficult at first, most kids will learn self-discipline, the value of hard work and to take responsibility for their own actions at the children’s home.
“The goal is for them to graduate high school, then enroll in a post-secondary program,” Donna says. “We want to get kids in a career that incorporates their skills and passions.”
Her students have proven her effectiveness. Six children’s home alumni will be graduating from college this academic year, while many others are thriving in higher education and in the workforce. Some are employed by large corporations, some are working to enter the health care field and many have grown to be educators in the public school system.
“School district teachers only have their students for the year,” Donna says. “I get to see them develop and mature over many years. It’s very unique and exciting.”
Donna tries to attend graduations and senior project presentations whenever she can. In 1993, she started cataloging students’ accomplishments. Her newspaper clippings now fill a small suitcase and can completely cover her office wall. She is not just proud of her students, but also inspired by what they’ve overcome.
“Whenever I have a bad day, I think about our kids,” she said, many of whom are getting adjusted to a new home and school while managing the emotions behind difficult family situations.
There are times when Donna is not working, but there is never a time when she is not learning. She likes to read about and research topics of interest – like finance and health – when she has a free moment, but her mind often wonders back to the kids and how she can help them reach their fullest potential.
She has no immediate plans for retirement, but says it will happen “when the door shuts and another opens.”