All posts by wellingtonINSIDER

Feature Stories, Wellington Real Estate

April 2016 Wellington Real estate

RealEstate

Wellington Real estate

Equestrian Background Gives Realtor Francis Hoet An Edge

Story by Matthew Auerbach

Photo by Abner Pedraza

When two of your main interests are real estate and all things equestrian, is it any wonder that you wind up in Wellington? For Francis Hoet, a Realtor with Illustrated Properties Real Estate, the community was a natural destination, considering the life she led before arriving in South Florida.

“I have double nationality, Belgian and Venezuelan, and received my bachelor’s degree in education in Caracas, Venezuela,” Hoet recalled. “My passion for real estate stems from my family. We have a long history in the real estate business in Latin America, Europe and the U.S, both as investors and owners of real estate brokerage firms. I began riding and showing in the jumper ring in 1991 in Caracas, where I met my husband, Cesar Hirsch, who is an FEI international equestrian judge and owner of Equis Boutique. We first came to Wellington in 1999, enjoyed spending several months a year here, and finally decided to move to Wellington with our horses during the winter season in 2009.”

Hoet and her husband have four children, ages 17, 16, 11 and 6. Hoet’s fluency in English, Spanish and French enables her to connect buyers with sellers all over the world. Since many of her clients are foreign equestrians who visit Wellington year after year, she specializes in sales and rentals of equestrian properties.

“I also have local clients who want to offer their properties for sale or rent during the season, so I make sure to help them stage their properties appropriately to meet the standards of the discerning buyers or tenants,” she said.

Hoet remains an avid equestrian fan, which she said helps her in providing insight and experience when it comes to the needs of her buyers. “I travel to several horse shows in the U.S. and other countries, which allows me to market properties among the equestrian community,” she said.

Being associated with Illustrated Properties allows Hoet to serve her customers fully, whether they are buying, selling or renting.

“I believe in giving the highest level of customer service to my clients, evaluating each client’s unique needs and finding them their ideal property,” she said. “Illustrated Properties Real Estate is affiliated with Christie’s, Luxury International Portfolio and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a network of the world’s finest real estate firms. Working with these companies allows me to maximize the exposure of a property not only locally, but at an international level.”

Hoet sees Wellington as a destination unlike any other.

“Wellington is a very special and unique town because of its diversity,” she said. “Thousands of visitors from all over the world come to Wellington each year, which has a positive impact in our local economy. Wellington also offers an array of communities to suit every taste, such as for the equestrian enthusiast, the aviator and the golfer, among many others.”

As far as the local real estate market, Hoet is pleased with its current state and upbeat and optimistic regarding its future.

“The Wellington real estate market started strong this year,” she said. “We have more buyers looking to invest in Wellington or to relocate, attracted by this family-oriented town and by its expansive equestrian venues and facilities for polo, jumping, hunters and dressage. Buyers feel confident investing in Wellington, and it is going to be a good year for the Wellington real estate market.”

Illustrated Properties Real Estate is located at 11924 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 18, in Wellington. To reach Hoet, call (561) 729-8518 or visit www.wellingtonproperties.com.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Table - Signature Dish

April 2016 Wellington Table

Table

Wellington Table

Zuppa Di Pesce At Giuseppe’s Italian Ristorante

Story and Photos by Julie Unger

Authentic, homemade Italian cooking is an art, and Giuseppe’s Italian Ristorante has been bringing its familiar meals to Wellington since 2007. The restaurant now has two locations, both offering the same delicious dishes that the community has enjoyed over the past decade.

Owner Joe Cooper chose Zuppa Di Pesce as the restaurant’s signature dish. “It’s our flagship entrée,” he explained. “It covers all of the seafood that we sell, and it’s an iconic Sicilian dish.”

Everything made at Giuseppe’s is fresh and made to order, Cooper said.

“We make everything to order,” he said. “It may take a few more minutes, but you know the old saying, everything worth waiting for is worthwhile waiting. Good things come to those who wait. That’s our motto.”

Zuppa Di Pesce at Giuseppe’s comes with jumbo shrimp, calamari, clams and mussels sautéed with garlic, basil and olive oil in a marinara wine sauce, served over linguine.

“It usually means fish soup,” Chef Joseph Marchese said. “It was a traditional dish back in the old days. People used to come into port — because Sicily was a port town — and basically, they would take all of the leftovers, throw it into a pot and make a soup out of it, and it became fish soup.”

This would be a typical meal in Sicily, but here in Wellington, Giuseppe’s does things a little differently, while keeping the authentic flair.

The meal is one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, Marchese said, and should be one of the signature dishes at any good Italian restaurant. “The seafood combination just tastes good,” he said, pointing out that other pastas besides linguine can be used.

Other entrée favorites include Pasta Giuseppe, Veal Saltimbocca, Chicken Margherita, Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Fettuccini alla Panna and Fettuccini Florentina.

“They’re all dishes I’ve made and added to our menu,” Marchese said. “Many of them are traditional, and some of them I’ve put my own little twist on.”

For example, when making Pasta Giuseppe, Marchese added ingredients together to find something that worked well.

“We have some traditional entrées. Zuppa Di Pesce is very traditional, and Veal Saltimbocca is very traditional,” he said.

For the most part, food at Giuseppe’s is traditional Italian, “how grandma used to make it.”

An example would be with the Chicken Parmigiana.

“I don’t use breadcrumbs,” Marchese said. “I use egg batter. For the most part, I try sticking to the traditional. I make all the tomato sauces, all the marinara sauces, here. Everything is made to order.”

If you order Fettuccini Alfredo, he’ll makes an individual batch of the sauce for the dish.

“I like to make people happy,” Marchese said. “I like to see their reaction when they taste something, and they have a smile on their face, and they enjoy the food they’re eating. It makes me happy to make them happy when it comes to food. A lot of my customers know me and want me to cook for them. They like the cooking, they like the atmosphere and they like the familiarity.”

Having a relationship with customers is important to Marchese, who has been a chef for more than 25 years. He was with the Forest Hill Blvd. location before it even became Giuseppe’s, starting in 2003. When the ownership changed, and the restaurant became Giuseppe’s, Marchese worked to revamp the menu and has been there ever since.

The diverse menu, featuring appetizers, salads, soups, pasta, baked pasta, Italian dishes, specialty dishes, chicken, veal, steak and seafood, as well as pizza, sandwiches and desserts, offers great food in a comfortable, cozy atmosphere.

If you can’t visit grandma’s for some homemade Italian cooking, you can always visit “Big Joe’s.”

Giuseppe’s Italian Ristorante is open seven days a week. The Wellington Town Square location, at 11924 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 33, is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sundays. To reach the Town Square Giuseppe’s, call (561) 790-3780.

The Courtyard Shops location, at 13860 Wellington Trace, Suite 36, is open from noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday. To reach the Courtyard Shops Giuseppe’s, call (561) 841-6488.

Giuseppe’s Italian Ristorante also offers delivery within Wellington, dine-in, take-out and even catering for events of all sizes.  For more information, visit www.giuseppesitalianristorante.com.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Health

March 2016 Wellington Health

Health_botton

Wellington Health

Dr. Jonathan Chung Specializes In A Gentle Approach To Chiropractic

Story by Ron Bukley

Photo by Abner Pedraza

Dr. Jonathan Chung of Keystone Chiropractic was drawn to his specialty in college when his friend’s father treated him for sports injuries.

“I had plans on going into sports medicine, and one of my best friends at the time was going into chiropractic because his father was a chiropractor,” Chung said. “I had been an athlete all my life.”

A Florida native, Chung grew up in Davie playing baseball. He graduated from Nova High School.

“When I was in college, I started learning more about chiropractic,” he recalled. “Chiropractic is all about the body’s natural ability to heal itself. It’s more about eliminating obstructions to the body’s ability to heal, using natural methods to promote healing within the body. I started getting adjusted by my friend’s father, and some of these aches and pains from playing sports started to go away.”

People come to Chung for a variety of ailments, but he is known for difficult-to-treat illnesses such as vertigo, chronic migraines and jaw pain.

“We also take care of a lot of people after a concussion,” he said. “Quite a few people come in to me for that, especially Wellington equestrians who fall off a horse. We also take care of people with low back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain from sports.”

A central theme in his treatment is atlas displacement, the way the head is sits on top of the neck.

“If there’s an abnormal sitting of the head on the neck, it can create a lot of these other symptoms,” Chung said. “By correcting that bad positon, we can restore function to the nervous system, improve circulation to the head and neck, and improve the joints’ ability to move, which has beneficial effects on the brain and nervous system overall.”

Chung employs a gentle, noninvasive procedure developed by the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association (NUCCA) to treat patients.

“There’s no twisting or popping or cracking associated with it,” he said. “It’s a technique focused on the neck, and it’s how we form a structural correction of the upper neck.”

This provides the necessary correction without harsher movements often associated with chiropractic.

“What most people feel is a series of gentle pressures against the top of the neck,” Chung said. “Hours later or days later they’ll actually start to feel the effects of the adjustment.”

Chung is one of only 300 doctors in the country who utilize the NUCCA procedure. He received his degree from the Life University in Atlanta.

A core philosophy of chiropractic is that a healthy human body is always trying to be as healthy as possible, he said, explaining that a lot of people think of a fever as a sickness.

“The fever, when we look at the core of it, is actually a mechanism in the human body to help get rid of viruses, to stop infections or slow them down. That is actually part of the healing process. Even though it doesn’t feel good, it is a part of what helps us get better and fight off illness. In chiropractic, we recognize this ability as part of the healing process. We’re here to try and promote the body’s own natural healing ability.”

Chung’s office offers classes to teach people how to strengthen their spine using exercise and corrective movements. They treat all ages, including infants and seniors.

“We have a state-of-the-art X-ray that allows us to measure the head and neck positon down to fractions of a millimeter,” he said. “Everything we do is objective and based in science, so not only will someone feel the difference from the type of work that we do, but they’ll be able to see the difference from when we first take an X-ray.”

Chung truly enjoys what he does for patients.

“It’s not just making someone feel better,” he said. “It’s knowing that we’re leaving the person in a physically better state than they were when they came in.”

Keystone Chiropractic is located at 420 State Road 7, Suite 170, near the Toys ‘R’ Us store. To learn more, call (561) 331-3162 or visit www.chiropractorcarewellington.com.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Real Estate

March 2016 Real Estate

Real Estate_button

Wellington Real estate

Realtor Jermaine Bell Specializes In Home Transformations

Story by Matthew Auerbach

Photo by Abner Pedraza

Ask a hundred real estate professionals the one thing they love more than anything else about the business they’re in, and you’ll most probably get a hundred different answers. For Jermaine Bell of Century 21 WC Realty in Wellington, it’s the chance to turn an ugly duckling into a swan.

“I really enjoy home transformations,” he said. “I love working on homes that most people are scared to step foot into and making them absolute gems.”

Bell grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. He left the island at age 16 and finished up his high school years at Plantation High School. After attending Florida Atlantic University for two years, he began his new life in real estate. He has been a licensed, full-time Realtor since 2004. Bell lives in Wellington with his wife and daughter.

Bell’s area of expertise is residential real estate, which he has concentrated on for more than a decade. His interest goes beyond putting the right buyer in the right home.

“I love helping my clients generate income, whether that be through flipping a property or rental income,” he said.

Bell knows that his experience as a Realtor comes into play with every potential deal. He doesn’t underestimate the effect of the human factor in these dealings, either.

“I think I not only offer expertise in my craft, but a personal relationship with my clients where they all feel that I genuinely have their best interests at heart,” Bell said. “They also know that I would never make suggestions or ask of them things I wouldn’t do myself. I think based upon that, a respect factor is developed that goes a long way in building a fruitful relationship. One of my strengths is being able to adapt to an ever-changing market.”

Riding the ups and downs of a sometimes volatile real estate market is part of the job. There’s something to be said for stability as well, which is Bell’s up-to-the-minute assessment of real estate in the Wellington community.

“The current state of real estate in our area is extremely solid,” Bell said. “Values are on the steady rise, which is great for current homeowners. The demand for the area is still strong and shows no signs of slowing down, in my opinion.”

Bell very much enjoys living and working in Wellington, the place that he and his family call home.

“Wellington is an area that offers such a wide variety of things to so many different people,” he said. “The different economic and social demographics make it a very unique environment. From the different parks and recreation, multicultural events to the various equestrian activities or landing a plane in your back yard, it has a little of everything.”

Century 21 WC Realty is located in the original Wellington Mall at 12794 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 29, in Wellington. To reach Jermaine Bell, call (561) 201-9219.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Table - Signature Dish

March 2016 Wellington Table

Table_button

Wellington Table

Signature Dish: Tres-Filet At Suri West

Story and Photos by Julie Unger

The owners of Suri Tapas Bar in downtown Lake Worth have opened a western outpost right here in Wellington. Suri West opened last November at the intersection of South Shore and Greenview Shores boulevards.

Owners Matthew Barger and John and Maureen Pata are thrilled with the new location, which features the same atmosphere, food, owners and even music as the popular original location.

Tantalizing taste buds is Suri West’s signature dish: Tres-Filet. It features three petit prime filet mignons, each prepared differently. One is Oscar style, the next features compound truffle butter, and the third is prepared with seared foie gras.

Set on a light bed of vegetables and baby arugula, the three petit filets are flavorful masterpieces. The dish allows guests to have a specialty sampling that provides an array of flavors, helping to find a favorite. Often, the dish is shared.

“It’s one of our most popular dishes because it’s the three filet minions,” Maureen Pata said.

Chef Mario Foglyano is particular about all of the dishes, including the Tres-Filet.

The filet Oscar includes jumbo lump crab meat and fresh asparagus, finished with hollandaise sauce. The compound truffle butter featured in the second filet is made in house of black winter truffles with a white truffle essence. Finally foie gras, the fatty liver of a duck, is seared and placed atop the third filet.

The combination of all three on one plate makes the meal special, Foglyano explained.

“You can go to your standard steakhouse and get a steak, but you can’t get it three different ways,” he said. “We appreciate the fact that you can get it three different ways; each person can get a bite.”

The filets are prime Harris Ranch beef tenderloin, and the meal is a Suri standard.

“It’s a favorite,” Foglyano said, noting that the restaurant is well-known for the popular dish.

Though the Suri locations are in South Florida, during the winter season, the menu features traditional fall and winter foods, such as acorn squash, walnuts, cranberries and more.

The menu is organized by salads and starters, then house-made flatbreads, meals for one, meals for two and vegetable sides. An extensive drink list with cocktails and martinis, reserve wines and delicious desserts round out a meal with picturesque views.

“The menu changes seasonally,” Barger said. “We try to work with local ingredients when we can. We try to work with the seasons.”

The Winter 2016 menu features the Suri Seasonal Salad with baby spinach, fried goat cheese, cranberries, candied pecans and maple balsamic vinaigrette. The Crab and Corn Chowda, a northern-style thick lump crab chowder, includes pancetta, fire-roasted corn and rustic vegetables. The Poached Pear and Caramelized Onion Flatbread shows off the flavors of Bosc pear poached in cabernet caramelized sweet Vidalia onion ricotta with brie cheese.

The Pulpo Espana meal features grilled Spanish octopus with fingerling potatoes, heirloom cherry tomatoes and arugula, tossed in a white wine garlic butter. Vegetarian options are also available, including the Vegetarian Spinach Lasagna, with burrata mozzarella, ricotta, grilled seasonable vegetables, spicy marinara sauce and spinach lasagna.

New Zealand lamb chops, wild salmon, Peruvian potato-crusted Chilean sea bass, lobster and Murray Farms organic airline chicken breast are integrated into many of Suri’s offerings. Brussels sprouts, acorn squash, truffle parm fries, Szechuan beans and more offer a variety of elegant vegetables to accompany the meal.

The Happy Endings menu, an array of delicious desserts, offer a sweet treat while relaxing with a glass of wine in the outdoor lounge area that includes a fire pit area. Desserts feature an ice cream sandwich, key lime cheesecake, s’mores, turtle cake, chocolate Baileys cake, the BTS cake — a chocolate layer cake with chocolate mousse and a bittersweet chocolate ganache — and more.

There are many venues that work hand in hand with the catering side of the restaurant, Suri Loft, that are available for parties of all types and sizes. Take-out is available, and reservations are preferred, especially on the weekends.

Suri West, located at 13410 South Shore Blvd. in Wellington, is open Monday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to midnight. For more information, visit www.surirestaurant.com or call (561) 795-0080.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Health

February 2016 Wellington Health

Health_Ideal Family Practice

Wellington Health

Walk-In Medical Care And More At Ideal Family Practice

By Ron Bukley

Ideal Family Practice & Walk-In Express Care, which opened last year at the recently constructed Medical Groves Plaza on Southern Blvd., offers a holistic, preventative approach to healthcare.

“We are nurse practitioners, so, generally, we care for anyone kindergarten age and up for primary care, and anybody a year and up for urgent care,” explained Tina Dochniak, DNP, ARNP, who has partnered with Stephanie Wise, ARNP, to operate a clinic that can offer most primary and urgent care services of a doctor’s office, but on a more personal level.

Urgent care services include immediate attention that is often not available at a doctor’s office.

“Say you wake up and you have a sore throat,” Dochniak said. “You don’t have an appointment, so you just walk in. That can be anywhere from wounds and not feeling well to abdominal pain and chest pain.”

Dochniak and Wise are looking to serve families who need primary care, as well as flexibility.

“Kids are sick, you can’t get in to see your primary doctor because they don’t have walk-ins, or there’s a limited amount of walk-in appointments,” Wise said. “We have walk-in from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Wise said. “You can still come in and get your physicals. There’s continuity of care in the sense that when you’re sick, you’re not going to one of the other urgent care centers where they may not know your blood pressure medicine. We’re all on the same system.”

Both Wise and Dochniak grew up and attended local schools, including college.

“We know the area, we know the people, we had a patient base in this area already,” Wise said. “The opportunity arose. We didn’t actually pick this spot; it kind of arose out of a need for a walk-in facility and an overflow-type of thing for the [doctor’s] office next door. We looked at it as a wonderful opportunity, especially to be out here in the western communities.”

Wise, attended the King’s Academy and lived in the Loxahatchee area. Dochniak attended John I. Leonard High School. They both attended Palm Beach State College and Florida Atlantic University, where they received their ARNP degrees, and Dochniak also received her doctorate in nursing.

“Nurse practitioners are trained a little bit differently than physicians,” Dochniak said. “We are trained from an RN level to look at the patient as a holistic person, so we treat not only from a medical model, but also, the goal of nurse practitioning is to keep the patient healthy. It’s a lot of teaching about how to stay healthy.”

Wise said their office is a model of healthcare that Florida is catching up to.

Dochniak noted that nurse practitioners in Florida are more restricted in what they can do than most nurse practitioners nationwide.

“Nurse practitioners in many parts of the U.S. have been in practices on their own for years,” she said. “The movement is coming to Florida.”

In Florida, nurse practitioners work with a collaborative physician who signs a protocol with the state that takes responsibility but doesn’t have to be directly in the day-to-day care of patients.

“I think we have the opportunity to have more time with the patients and get to know them on a more personal basis,” Dochniak said. “The way that healthcare is moving, there’s not a lot of physicians who do primary or family practice anymore, so nurse practitioners are filling that gap.”

Dochniak and Wise have arranged their schedules so one of them is always available when the office is open. “We take care of each other,” Dochniak said. “When one of us is not here, the other one is here.”

Ideal Family Practice & Walk-In Express Care is located at 13475 Southern Blvd., Suite 100, in Loxahatchee Groves, just west of Palms West Hospital. Call (561) 231-5200 or visit www.idealfamilypractice.com for more information.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Real Estate

February 2016 Wellington Real Estate

RealEstate_Karen Gant_ReMax

Wellington Real estate

Re/Max Direct’s Karen Gant: From Hollywood To Wellington

By Matthew Auerbach

Many real estate professionals have an interesting back story that details the road taken to their current profession. You’d be hard-pressed, however, to find a tale more unique than that of Re/Max Direct’s Karen Gant. How many real estate agents do you know who also are lifetime members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences?

“I am a true movie buff,” Gant said. “After receiving a BFA (bachelor’s of fine arts) degree at Hunter College in New York City, I aspired to build a career in entertainment. I moved to Los Angeles and worked my way up to senior level marketing positions at Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox and CBS, creating and producing movie and television advertising campaigns. During that period, I had the honor to be elected into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as a lifelong member.”

In 1994, Gant met her husband, Richard. A new phase of her life was about to begin.

“We began to think about buying a home together,” Gant said. “Good climate was a priority, and Florida seemed like the answer. I have always had a history with South Florida, where I visited generations of relatives over the years. In 1998, we bought a beautiful home in Boca Raton and quickly adapted to our new lifestyle and friends. Only one thing was missing: a new career to challenge me and provide stability for our new life. An acquaintance suggested real estate, and shortly thereafter, I was on my way to real estate school.”

Gant was also on her way to Wellington. She and Richard moved here in 2003, where she continued to specialize in luxury homes.

“To me, a beautiful home reflects artistry in its architecture and design,” she said. “Initially, I focused on waterfront properties, as well as new construction. Since moving to Wellington, I have concentrated particularly on the community of Versailles, where I have lived and worked for more than 12 years, becoming the number one Realtor in transactions and closings.”

Gant credits the unique makeup of Wellington for making her job easier.

“The comfortable, laid-back charm of Wellington provides a great backdrop for me to work,” she said. “The majesty of the beautiful horses trotting along as cars whiz by is not typical of any area I know. I am impressed by the growth and opportunity of Wellington, although I have had the experience of working all over Palm Beach County and know most of the area quite well.”

Gant has been associated with Re/Max Direct for three years. The relationship has been a successful one for both parties.

“Their focus on new technology exceeds the boundaries of every other brokerage I have been affiliated with,” Gant said. “Since we inhabit a digital world where technology moves faster than warp speed, I feel confident knowing that I have the tools to serve my clients with maximum efficiency. My goal is to ensure that my clients feel that they are well-informed through close communication.”

She takes a clear-eyed view of the future of the housing market.

“The current real estate market is still volatile,” Gant said. “Although certain areas of the country have made a healthy recovery, Florida is still in the process. I see that improving now, and even with a slight increase in interest rates, for every prospective buyer, the American Dream is still fueled by the desire to purchase a home.”

To contact Karen Gant, call (561) 644-3720 or (561) 615-1081, or visit www.karengant.com.

Facebookpinterestmail
Feature Stories, Wellington Education

February 2016 Wellington Education

Education_Khessia Jean-Baptiste

Wellington Education

Elbridge Gale’s Khessia Jean-Baptiste Has Created A Unique Mentoring Program

Story by Chris Felker

Photos by Abner Pedraza

Now in her seventh year at Elbridge Gale Elementary School, teacher Khessia Jean-Baptiste is carving out a special space for students who lag behind their peers.

Jean-Baptiste is teaching familiar lessons — ones she had to learn herself as a child — to a select group of these children as part of twin mentorship programs she recently started at the Wellington school.

Growing up in New York, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, she was drawn to education at an early age, learning skills that later would come in handy helping her mother run a home daycare facility.

“My mother always taught smaller kids, and at church, she ran the children’s ministries, so I would always see her in her behavior management style. She was a pretty big influence,” Jean-Baptiste recalled. “And then I realized that I was just good at it.”

She quickly learned that education would be a pathway to success in the United States. “My parents really, really pushed education, and put a lot on me to get it, because they weren’t English speakers,” Jean-Baptiste said.

She arrived in Florida with her family in 2000, when she was 14 year old. She completed her education locally, graduating from Wellington High School and attending Palm Beach Community College (now Palm Beach State College) before earning her bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Florida Atlantic University.

“During my time at FAU, because I was in Wellington, they placed me at Elbridge Gale for my student teaching,” Jean-Baptiste said. “The teachers I worked with, the third-grade staff, we got along really well. They could see that I was really driven and dedicated and wanted to do well, so they recommended that I try to get a job there.”

With support from her future colleagues, Principal Gail Pasterczyk offered Jean-Baptiste a position.

Jean-Baptiste stayed teaching third grade for a while, until she ventured out on a different path. “I started studying for the Exceptional Student Education certification so I could become an ESE teacher,” she said.

After completing the training, she taught half regular classes and half ESE classes until she decided that she wanted to give her full attention to ESE classes.

“My classes are for kids who have learning disabilities or some other exceptionality. Usually it’s the ones who are slower learners, those with emotional behavior disorders or some other health impairment that affects their ability to learn at the same rate or the same content as other students,” she said.

Jean-Baptiste explained that she is drawn to helping those children. “I like trying to find different ways to present things to them so they get it, because when they finally get it, it means so much to them,” she said.

But she came to a realization. “After being exposed to more grade levels, especially fifth grade, after I finished my first year with fifth grade, I felt concerned that some of the students were going on to middle school without having what we call ‘soft skills,’ like self-control and time management,” Jean-Baptiste said. “They didn’t really know how to do a big project from start to finish without having me help them a lot.”

It’s a problem she recalled from her own formative years. “My parents didn’t really teach me time management, and so I struggled with it a lot,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I knew that there were other kids who always just seemed to have their projects turned in on time. As I got older, I realized that I need a planner. I need to set small goals.”

With this idea in mind, she created programs to fill this need. In 2013-14, she instituted the GOLD program for girls, followed this school year by the TAGS program for boys.

“GOLD stands for Goal-Oriented Ladies of Distinction. We had a small group of about 15 girls, and I had about five or six mentors, and everybody at school was extremely receptive to it,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I knew that we’d have to start this for boys as well. So this year, we started the TAGS program, which stands for The Association of Gentlemen Scholars.”

The small group programs cater to girls who are often quiet and don’t advocate for themselves or ask for help, and boys who are often tardy, have disciplinary problems and are under-achieving. They are matched up with mentors from among about a dozen of Jean-Baptiste’s fellow teachers. She also invites outside speakers, all adult professionals, to address to the groups.

“They talk to them about what they do, try to instill in them the importance of education and being motivated and responsibility and having your own drive and not always having people telling you what to do,” Jean-Baptiste said.

The students meet with their mentors a few times a week, just to discuss problems they’re having, situations they’re dealing with and any social or emotional difficulties they’re facing. They’ll often role-play to learn different ways of coping with life’s setbacks.

“I definitely like to focus on the social and emotional learning, because kids are smart. They learn a lot. If we’re not intentionally giving them positive social things to pick up on, they’re going to pick up on the negative,” Jean-Baptiste said.

For girls, the mentoring focuses on esteem-building, goal-setting, learning how to navigate social situations, making more friends and maintaining those friendships, even social etiquette and dining etiquette. For boys, the lesson sets are a bit different: self-control, different ways to solve conflicts, the value of apologizing, being accountable for your behavior, dealing with frustrations and etiquette.

Jean-Baptiste is planning an end-of-year luncheon where the students can invite someone important to them and must RSVP and dress up.

All together, these activities add up to life and attitude training, not just education. And Jean-Baptiste thrives on seeing all the parts come together in her students before they head off to their next phase of education.

“My biggest reward is seeing the kids enjoy learning,” she said. “It is hard to enjoy learning these days. The way the curriculum is changing is great for them; it’s really going to prepare them for college. But some of it is kind of boring. I strive to help them get interested in it. I love to see kids happy in school.”

Facebookpinterestmail