My Story

[Image Description: "THE THINGS THAT YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT ARE NOT RANDOM. THEY ARE YOUR CALLING. -FABIENNE FREDERICKSON" in center-aligned white letters on a black letter board with beige wooden bordering laying on a red, yellow, blue, and purple quilt as the background]

In my first trimester at Bryn Athyn College, I am required to take an Intro to Philosophy (Worldview) course. In the beginning of the trimester, one of the required assignments for the class was for students to use words, images, or some combination to depict or offer a summary of our stories highlighting moments where we perceived a "summons" or sense of being called. So, I wrote about my vocational calling.

[Image Description: Group picture with Life Skills students, buddies, and educators in the classroom's kitchen; Standing from left to right is Jake M, a buddy, Ben, another buddy, Ms. M, Trevor, me, Mrs. McCaffrey, a buddy, Mandi, a buddy, Mrs. O'Brien, a buddy, and Kayla. Many of us are wearing a rainbow leis and colorful clothing and there are slices of vanilla cake with pink icing and pink sprinkles on colorful plates and water in aqua cups. The rest of the cake is also in a silver tray and everything is on a table. Most of us are also all standing behind the table or sitting in a chair with the group. This picture was from Mrs. McCaffrey's surprise birthday party in 2015.]

    In ninth grade, when I was telling one of my teachers about my plans to volunteer in a dementia unit, she recommended that I join our school's Buddy Club because she saw my love for helping others. Buddy Club is a club for helping and being a friend to the Life Skills in the Lower Moreland School District. After only two months of being a buddy, the club immediately changed my life forever by confirming my career path of wanting to become a Life Skills Support teacher and developing my passion of advocating for disability/disabled/differently-abled community. In eleventh and twelfth grade, I was elected as the first ever Buddy Club President. Being Buddy Club President made my love for the club grow even stronger. I was involved in the club all four years of high school and I am still involved in the club even as an alumni. In twelfth grade, I started and managed a Facebook page for Buddy Club. After I graduated high school in 2016, ownership of the page was transferred over to the next Buddy Club officer since I was no longer Buddy Club President. As a result, I missed spreading awareness, acceptance, and inclusion of the disability/disabled/differently-abled community publicly on social media other than doing so on my personal private social media accounts. So, in April 2017, I started my own disability advocacy blog called First Former Buddy Club President for posting about my continuous experience with Buddy Club as an alumni buddy, other volunteer experiences with the disability community, advocating, and life as an aspiring (Life Skills) teacher.

[Image Description: Group picture from my first Horizons event at Thunderbird Lanes (now called Bowlero); Standing from left to right is Ben, me, Jake A, Kayla, Colleen, and Ronald McQueen.]

[Image Description: Krista and I at Autism Cares Foundation's 2018 Prom; Krista is wearing a dark blue dress and bright blue cardigan and I am wearing a red dress. Krista and I took this picture at the photo stand and the backdrop has a khaki sign with "Autism Cares Foundation 2018 PROM" in dark brown text on it at the top. The rest of the background has red curtains and a white backdrop with the red and blue Autism Cares Foundation logo on it.]

[Image Description: In this picture, I am standing in front of a white closet, wearing a red shirt that says "Legendary Family" in white cursive writing with two intertwined hands on it and a red headband with my curly brown hair down, and holding a black letter board with beige wooden bordering that says "I AM OFFICIALLY A MEMBER OF BUCKS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE'S ACHIEVE ADVISORY BOARD!" in white letters.]

[Image Description: The book on the left is titled "NAVIGATING COLLEGE A Handbook on Self Advocacy" in center-aligned black text. Below the title has "Written for Autistic Students, by Autistic adults" in center-aligned black text. The text of "NAVIGATING COLLEGE" is bolded. Below "Written for Autistic Students, by Autistic adults" has "brought to you by ASAN" in center aligned black text. The text of "ASAN" is bolded and on the left side of "ASAN" is the organization's circular rainbow-colored logo. Below "ASAN" has "AUTISTIC SELF ADVOCACY NETWORK" in center-aligned black text. The bottom of the book cover has "Foreword by ASAN President Ari Ne'eman" in center-aligned black text. All of these words have a white background with a picture of college students sitting in red chairs on wooden tables in a large classroom. The book on the right is titled "The Parent's Guide to College for Students on the Autism Spectrum" in left-aligned bolded black text. A few spaces under the title of the book is "Jane Thierfeld Brown, EdD, Lorraine E. Wolf, PhD, Lisa King, MEd, and G. Ruth Kukiela Brown, MEd" in left-aligned black text. There is also a picture of a blue puzzle piece wearing a black graduation cap with a gold tassel dangling upwards on it on the cover of the book. The background of the book appears to be designed as looking like beige loose-leaf paper. The books are also laying on a red, yellow, blue, and purple quilt as the background.]

    Besides Buddy Club, I have also done many other things to pursue my vocational calling. I participate in many other volunteer experiences for helping the disability/disabled/differently-abled community. I am a volunteer for Horizons, which is a social support group for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Bryn Athyn community funded by and managed under the support of the larger organization called the New Church Challenge, and volunteer for Autism Cares Foundation. I am also an advisory board member of Bucks County Community College's AACHIEVE! program. AACHIEVE! is a transition program for autistic college students/college students with autism or autism spectrum disorder/college students on the autism spectrum.

[Image Description: Picture of my CDA certificate; The certificate is white paper and says "Council for Professional Recognition" in black text center-aligned at the top. Below the name of the organization, the following black text is center aligned on the certificate: "certifies that EMILY HOFF has satisfactorily demonstrated competence in working with young children through an assessment by the CDA National Credentialing Program and is hereby awarded the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential." Below that information, "Preschool" is in black bolded text and The Child Development Associate National Credentialing Program's logo is in gold. The signature of Valora Washington who is the Chief Executive Officer of the The CDA Council is written on a line in black cursive handwriting in the bottom left corner of the certificate.]

[Image Description: Picture of my Associate's Degree diploma from Bucks County Community College. The diploma is a white paper with the following black center-aligned text: "The Trustees of BUCKS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA Upon the recommendation of the faculty have conferred on Emily E. Hoff the degree of Associate of Arts: PreK-4 Early Education." Below the name of my degree "Cum Laude" is written in yellow cursive text. Below "Cum Laude", the following black center-aligned text is present: "and all the rights and privileges thereunto appertaining. In witness thereof, they have issued this diploma duly signed and have affixed the seal of the college. Issued on this twenty-fifth day of May, two thousand twenty one." The signature of the chair of the board of trustees is written in the bottom left corner of the diploma with Bucks County Community College's logo in gold center-aligned at the bottom of the diploma. Next to the logo the signature of Stephanie Shanblatt (President of the college at the time) is written.]

I have my Child Development Associate (CDA) certification, Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bucks County Community College, and I am currently a student at Bryn Athyn College for my Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Special Education on the Dean's Scholarship. I want to start out as a Direct Service Professional (DSP), then a Therapeutic Support Staff (TSS), and then a Special Educational paraprofessional before being a Life Skills Support teacher. I also worked as an Assistant Toddler Teacher to eighteen-to-twenty-four month olds for two years and twelve-to-twenty-four month olds in my third year of teaching along with five years of working in childcare. I quit this job at Children of America Southampton in August 2021 as I was given the opportunity to go back to school full-time for my Bachelor's Degree to focus more on school and earn my degree faster. As part of my teaching philosophy, I commit myself to teaching my students about diversity, acceptance, and inclusion every day. I look forward to the rest of the opportunities that will come along my journey following my dreams towards my calling.

[Image Description: In this picture, I am standing outside of Bryn Athyn College in front of a pole with a red flag on it that has "BRYN ATHYN COLLEGE" in white text on it. I am also wearing a cream colored sleeveless top with a cream colored cardigan over it, brown pants, a white headband, and a pink and white tie-dyed mask.]

[Image Description: This picture was taken with my toddler students on October 30, 2020 for our Halloween Party. There are orange jack-o-lantern emojis covering my toddler students' faces to protect their identities. Sitting on the brown floor from left to right is Child A dress has a pink and white unicorn, me dressed as a black cat with my black mask on, Child B dressed as the Beast from Beauty and the Beast sitting on my lap, Child C dressed in the same unicorn costume as Child A, Child D dressed as a minion, and Child E dressed as a green and gray dinosaur.]

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