About me

Hello! My name is Mara. I just grew up in Olympia Washington with my parents and older brother. I grew up training intensively in ballet and went on to double major in dance and psychology at Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington where I just graduated summa cum laude this past May.

Throughout my years I've had several opportunities to work with kids in several different capacities. During college, I led an afterschool mentorship program called Campus Kids for 4th and 5th graders from a local elementary school. We would plan for and do fun activities that were centered around community building, social-emotional learning, and planning for post-high school. During my first 2 summers in college, I worked at a daycare with infants through PreK kids which I loved and found that I was especially interested in preschool emotional regulation and social skills. For the past two summers, I worked as a live-in Resident Assistant for a dance summer program for children under 18 who were staying away from home. I planned fun field trips, kept track of their whereabouts, attended doctors' appointments with them, and any other help that they needed while they were away from their parents. I've also had the pleasure of working as a dance instructor at the dance studio I grew up at as well as several studios in the Spokane area for ages 7-17.

I love to encourage play with kids in a way that allows them to be creative and also supports their fine and gross motor skills and well as academic and social skills. I deeply believe that children deserve to be treated as equals in the ways that are appropriate and when there is an issue, they deserve to be heard and validated while still maintaining proper rules and boundaries.