EMILY PROVOST
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I graduated with a B.A. in Visual Arts from Bennington College and plan to pursue a Master’s in Social Work focusing on Special Needs children and their families.
I learned at Bennington that art and children have a symbiotic relationship, so instead of pursuing my own arts career, I followed my passion for understanding children by helping them to develop their unique identities through the arts. I enjoy scaffolding large-scale, long-term projects, but always improvise according to children’s needs and interests. Early childhood provides a foundation for life. I seek to help young children develop self-awareness and awareness of others in their community through all kinds of expression—verbal, physical, artistic, metaphorical, sensorial, emotional, scientific. Over the last ten years, I have worked alongside children as young as birth through to adolescence in a variety of social, residential, and academic settings—from early childhood classrooms to in-home educational training for special needs children. Part of my purpose in joining WPCS is to share in the celebration of your children, their expression, our interdependence, and being part of a conscious community. I am relocating to Philadelphia after 10 years in New York City, and enjoy reading, writing, running, cycling, attempting to develop a green thumb, spending time with my toddler and the outdoors. |
RO ADLER
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My first encounter with early childhood education was in a pre-K classroom in Tucson, Arizona. I loved the classroom’s Reggio Emilia principles, which resonated with me intuitively - particularly the idea that children are strong, rich, and powerful people in and of themselves, not deficient pre-adults. I also appreciated the warmth of community built between children, teachers, and families.
I have worked as a childcare provider and educator for over 10 years. I love to engage with children on challenging, nuanced, real-world issues. I think raising children is political, and it’s an honor to be part of the project of raising up young people who are ready to tackle injustice. I have lived in Philly since 2014. When I’m not working with young people, I spend my time making puppets, dreaming up strange pranks to play on my friends, and organizing with the Philly Childcare Collective, Resource Generation, and other racial and economic justice projects around the city. |
BRIANA CLARKE
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I studied Theater Technology and Design at The Pennsylvania State University with a focus in Costume Design. In addition to WPCS, I work as a Teaching Artist through The ArtWell and SpiralQ in Philadelphia, PA, both youth community, social justice, and art based organizations. I am also a Program Coordinator for the Teen Leadership Institute of Camp Sojourner Girls’ Leadership Camp, a program that focuses on building leadership, self esteem, and participation in social movements.
I am a lifelong West Philadelphia resident and love this community. My teaching combines the building and mastery of arts and literacy skills with dialogue grades K-12. Throughout the Philadelphia School district and community based organizations, I have been able to utilize student-centered workshops that concentrate on multicultural education, assets based youth development, and social-emotional learning to stimulate and support creative minds. My passion is bringing communities together through all ages and backgrounds and creating learning environment where self expression, exploration, risk taking, storytelling, and relationship building is valued. Our youth have so much wisdom and insight to offer to the world, they just need more available spaces to express them. Outside of work I am a painter, love being in nature, designing spaces, and researching events to attend in the city. |
REED KELLY
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I have been working with young humans my whole life and have bachelors degrees in early childhood education and psychology. I studied Communication Sciences & Disorders in graduate school and worked as an early intervention speech therapist before finding myself here at WPCS!
I am passionate about helping guide children through their development by creating an environment where they feel comfortable enough to explore their curiosities, their feelings and their gender. I believe learning happens through experiences and focus on development of social/emotional needs, creativity, communication, critical thinking and independence. Many of our society's problems can be traced back to people learning harmful ideas or practices in their childhood, which is why I believe that raising socially conscious, compassionate children is imperative. I am also an active community organizer and I currently work with Philadelphia's immigrant rights and animal liberation movements. I believe that all living beings, no matter their species, gender, country of origin or skin color are deserving of the basic right to live in peace without the threat of violence. In my personal time, I aim to spread this idea through art and sincere conversations. I enjoy creating by illustrating, painting, creating collages and writing poetry! |