About me

Hi My name is Ellen. I am a kind, compassionate, caring, warm person, who is creative and artistic. I adore children and truly enjoy spending time with them doing fun activities. I have been working with children since I was 12 years old. In middle and high school, I babysat for families from my synagogue. I also began babysitting for many families in my neighborhood, who were not members of my synagogue and would frequently babysit for families who had children with special needs. I have babysat for newborns, twins, children, and adults with special needs. Parents of the children I worked with would often have me stay overnight when they would go out of town for work.

Over the years, I worked with one family who had three children with developmental delays and another family who has a child who is profoundly mentally handicapped, autistic and nonverbal. During college, I was a live in nanny for 4 children ages 4-13 for a year, the oldest having special needs. I pride myself on making sure the child in my care always feels safe and taken care of. This mean not only being loving but also nicely setting firm limits to keep the child safe. I encourage fun, exploration and growth in a safe, secure environment. I am a hands on babysitter and whenever I babysit, I play with the children, help them with their homework, take them to/from school, feed them meals and put them to bed.

In college, I studied elementary and special education, to obtain my teaching degree. As a college junior, my material aunt became ill and I was the primary caregiver for my two first cousins, ages, 12 and 9. After her passing, the children moved in with their father and I was going to return back to school. However, I was then given the opportunity to work for my aunt's best friend, as a nanny for her four children, ages 4-12, one having special needs. I decided to take a year off of my undergraduate studies and worked for this family a year, living with them in the Cayman Islands. During the school day, I would go to their school and volunteer in the classrooms. After school, I would work with the children on their school work, tutoring them in all subjects. After the year ended, the family moved to Connecticut. I then worked for them for the next 5 summer vacations, taking the children to their summer activities and tutoring them in school work.

Once I received my teaching degree, I moved from Florida to Connecticut and was an in-house tutor for students in grades 5-12 at a very academically rigorous private school. Although I was based in the school, I worked for the parents directly. I spent two years working at this private school and would frequently stay at the homes of the students, when their parents would go away for a weekend. The children I would stay and babysit for were from ages 10-17. I then began working at the Exploration Summer Program (Explo), first at Wellesley College and then at Yale University and spent the next 5 summers as an ESL teacher, residential advisor, and residential director. I also taught classes in arts and crafts, painting and drawing. Additionally, I coordinated sports activities with the students. As an Explo staff member, I was in charge of the physical, emotional and mental health of the 800 high school students who attended the 6 week program.

I pursued my Masters Degree in Social Work and I have worked with high schoolers (grades 9-12) for the last 16 years. I work for a domestic violence agency, where I run a preventative program called Relationship Abuse Prevention Program, (RAPP). RAPP is an anti-violence, anti-bullying, peer leadership program at a public high school in New York City. RAPP students participate in individual and group counseling, are trained on how to prevent violence in their communities, participate in community service and go on social trips. Although I have been CPR and first aid certified since high school. Two years ago, I took a four month Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class and was certified in June 2017.