Site Coordinator Spotlight: Sara Schmidt

Site Coordinator Spotlight: Sara Schmidt

By Jenn Schultz

Our Site Coordinators are instrumental in ensuring our ACES programming runs smoothly and our youth are receiving intentional and relevant learning objectives. They’re the face of their site for administrators, students, and families, but they do so much more - they review daily lesson plans, provide observations and valuable feedback for our Academic Coaches, and coordinate and chaperon field trips. Their communication and implementation are instrumental in our success, so we wanted to feature them through periodic spotlight articles!

First up: Site Coordinator Sara Schmidt!

Sara is starting her third year as a Site Coordinator with ACES, her second year as a Site Coordinator at Global Arts Plus (formerly Linwood Monroe Arts Plus). Prior to joining ACES, she was a camp counselor during college, and she also worked in kids activities and recreation at a resort. While she enjoyed working at the resort, she missed the ability to build relationships with the kids, as she was often only with them for a day or two. She briefly went back to working at camps before joining ACES.

Sara was first drawn to working with kids in high school. She had the opportunity to work in classrooms, which is how she learned that being a teacher in a traditional classroom wasn’t going to be the right fit for her. However, those classroom visits reaffirmed her desire to work with kids

Sara was living in Arkansas when she first learned of ACES. She wanted to move back to the upper Midwest and began searching for new opportunities online. She found ACES through the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and felt their mission aligned with what she wanted to do. She loves building relationships with youth, working with them every day, and seeing their growth throughout the year.

In the future, Sara sees herself continuing in roles where she can develop relationships with children and their families. She places an emphasis on having strong, positive relationships with the parents of our ACES students and would love to increase engagement with families as a unit.

Sara’s Stats
Hometown: Leland, Iowa
College: University of Northern Iowa
Major: Leisure, Youth and Human Services
Favorite Sport: Baseball
Favorite Subject: Reading