Alicia Lynch, Ashley McCoach, and Kelli Witowski, all seniors at Twin Valley High School, have been named February’s Interns of the Month. The three girls have been recognized as a group, because they have been interning together this year at Twin Valley Elementary Center with music teacher, Mrs. Melissa Ebeling. The girls started an internship program this year at TVEC that provides strings lessons to third and fourth grade students. Lynch, McCoach, and Witowski intern each day to help these students with special concepts, fine motor skills, reading, logic and sequencing.
According to Ebeling, several years ago the Strings Program at TVEC was reorganized and changed so that strings lessons were cut from elementary schools and were only available to middle school students. When Lynch, McCoach and Witowski learned of this change, they expressed to Ebeling how important it was for them to have begun in elementary school and that they wanted to provide today’s students with the same opportunity.
“A lot of students in my orchestra, including Kelli and Ashley, started playing in elementary school, so it is something that people continue doing as they grow up when they start young” said Lynch. “I know that starting early helps out a lot in the long run, so we wanted to make sure those who want to play, can.” she added.
The three girls all emphasize the fact that learning strings has become such an important part of their lives and that they want to make sure that elementary students are given the chance to learn, just like they did. Even though the girls are teaching strings to students, all three agree that being an intern has taught them a lot in return. “I think that what I learned from this experience was patience. I knew that was very necessary when teaching children, but it is even more prevalent when teaching an instrument,” said McCoach.
In addition to learning many lessons themselves while teaching strings to the TVEC students, all three of the girls reflect on the fact that interning has been a very rewarding experience.
“My favorite part of interning is being able to see how much each student has improved and how well they pick up difficult concepts,” said Witowski. “We plan on having a spring concert to show the parents how much work their children have put into learning such a complicated instrument,” she added.
Lynch, McCoach, and Witowski have all worked very hard to help teach strings to the students at TVEC–in order to leave a lasting impression on them and encourage them to continue their passions in the future.
“Having Kelli, Ashley, and Alicia come to our school has provided yet another outlet for our students to explore their musical skills while connecting with other Twin Valley students,” said Ebeling. “We are so lucky that these extraordinary young ladies have followed their passion and talents to help bring this program to life,” she added.
Congratulations, Alicia Lynch, Ashley McCoach, and Kelli Witowski, on being named February’s Interns of the Month. Best of luck to the three of you in your future endeavors.
