As the elementary school continues to celebrate our Royal team that we have formed this school year, we are delighted to highlight some of our new most valuable players, our new paraprofessionals that work in our special education department. You likely see these staff members in the morning during drop off, at pick up, and welcoming students from the buses. Be sure to give them a smile and hello! This year we had 7 new paras join us and it is my pleasure to introduce them today.
Guadalupe Oliva- Martinez is our new multilingual learners paraprofessional. Guadalupe was born in Mexico and grew up in southern California. With her husband and 3 children, Guadalupe has lived in Cicero, IL, Mexico and now Hinckley. Guadalupe’s oldest daughter graduated from HBR in 2022. She is so glad to work with our MLL program in order to give back to our HBR community for the ways in which her family received support when they moved here. She believes it is so special to be able to help students like her own, with two languages at home.
Bridget Wilkening is a 2023 grad of HBR. She is currently studying agriculture business at Joliet Junior College. When not in her college classes or in our early childhood classes, Bridget enjoys tractor pulling and spending time with her family.
Molly Ferguson took a hiatus, but she is back with us, working in early childhood. Molly has two daughters that are 20 years apart! Her youngest is a 5th grader here at HBR. Mrs. Ferguson also works for Arbor, serving lunch to our students part time. Molly’s claim to fame is that her grandfather was friends with the real Chef Boyardee.
Lauren Gildemontes is another 2023 grad of HBR. We love being able to employ our Royals! Lauren attended IVVC and did the EMT program there. She lives here in Hinckley with her brothers. It is great that Lauren is able to use some of her EMT training while working with some of our students. We are fortunate to have her and her skillset.
Jaime Seil is new to Hinckley. She moved here with her daughters this summer. Coming from retail and restaurant experience, we love how Jaime has picked up education lingo so quickly. Her daughter is a 5th grader at HBR. When not working, Ms. Seil loves coffee and spending time with her girls.
Tina Brian is another one of our new Royals. Tina previously worked as an emergency call dispatcher, but has recently enjoyed staying home with her son, who is now a kindergartener this year at HBR. Tina lives with her family in Hinckley, and her favorite activity is watching her son play sports.
Abbegail Campbell attended HBR, graduated in ‘23 from a school in North Carolina, and is now back in Hinckley. She loved it so much, she could not stay away! Abbegail played the flute in the school band for 8 years. She is passionate about helping animals and other people, which is why she enjoys her role as a para here. In her free time, Abbegail loves to cook.
Ericka Koulis is our last new paraprofessional to introduce. Ericka has a son who is a 1st grader at HBR and she also has 4 step children. Ericka is a Chicago Bears fan- she attends a game in December each year for her birthday and it is often in the snow. Growing up, Ericka’s childhood crushes were Devon Sawa and Leonardo DiCaprio. She has to teach history lessons to our young students to know who these famous actors are.
Thank you for welcoming our new HBR Royals to the team. You can tell they are all uniquely talented but all share one love- being an HBR Royal and helping our incredible students!