Community Spotlight: Ellie, Lucia, and Erin O'Fallon

 

Erin O’Fallon has sent all three of her children to the Eliot School’s Summer Program for Children. She has loved seeing how they've grown creatively through the hands-on projects in a wide variety of media that they’ve been able to try out over the course of so many summers with us. This month, we spoke with Erin and her daughters, Ellie and Lucia, about their summer experiences at the Eliot School and why they continued to come back summer after summer. 

Our new February and April Vacation Week Programs are now open for registration, and our Summer Program for Children opens for registration on Wednesday, January 14 at 12 noon. Learn more about these programs and sign your student up HERE.

 

 

Transcript

Ellie: My name's Ellie, and I went to the Eliot School from when I was six years old to when I was 12.  

Erin: Hi, I'm Erin, and all three of my kids spent many summers at the Eliot School with great enthusiasm.  

Lucia: My name is Lucia. I'm 12, and I've gone to the Eliot School basically every single year since I was like five, and so have my siblings. 

What initially drew you guys to the Eliot School? 

Erin: I remember feeling tempted to bring my kids to the Eliot School because of the range of programs that they offered, and the quality of the teachers they had was always terrific. So, my kids always wanted to come back for more, and they were really grateful for the learning opportunities they had at the Eliot School.

Lucia: Whenever my parents would be like, so what do you want to do this summer? It was always something that I was interested in because it just felt like one of those places that was the perfect mix of really relaxing and really familiar, but then there was also always something fun and exciting to do.

Erin: I’ll just add on to that, that what I loved about the Eliot School was, you know, my kids would often tell me during the school year that their academic experience was one where it was hurry up and then wait in line for something, or there was a lot of pressure to align with the curriculum at school. And at the Eliot School, it was this nice, slowed-down pace, attention to every student, opportunity for them to really engage in something they loved, and really do a deep dive with hands-on fabric or multimedia with really experts in the field. And they would just come home refreshed and relaxed, and it felt like this wonderful antithesis to how busy the school year could be.  

Ellie: For sure. 

Erin: So, our whole family loved that. And we’re so grateful for that ingredient in their learning experience. It's been terrific, like all of them really loved that. 

Is there anything that really kept you involved with the Eliot School, coming back every summer? 

Ellie: I think when I first started going was kind of like a new, exciting, maybe a little bit nervous experience, but by the time I was 12 years old, it just felt so familiar. 

Erin: I agree. I think when you came back, there were teachers who knew you and recognized you, and it felt like they welcomed you back to the Eliot community.

Lucia: For me, I felt like the Eliot School was a place where I could see all these people that I knew, and that just felt really great because even though it was a little bit different every year, there were just so many people and community there. And when you came back, it was like, oh, it’s great to be here. 

Ellie: I think the great variety of it, because there’s always different things to do every year. 

Erin: Every year, we would sign up, we were like, wait, do you want to do photography this year, or mixed media, or Legos, or fabric? And the range of options that they provided were always things that you guys were excited to explore. So, I felt like every summer there was an interesting and appealing option for you, as well as something that felt familiar and appealing. And that combination really was what drew us back to Eliot School.