NDEAM Spotlight: Jennifer Iuliucci Celebrates 20-Year Career at BCCS
Early weekday mornings, Teacher Assistant Jennifer Iuliucci can be found guiding groups of children through the halls of the BCCS Education Center.
Jennifer assists students as they go from class to class, watches over them through their daily activities, or helps them through pre-vocational tasks.
Jennifer is an encouraging and positive presence. She’s also a former BCCS student and longtime staffer.
At a recent milestones event in October, she was recognized for 20 years of service with BCCS as a TA.
“The reason why I like working with these kids is because I feel like they need us. They need the hands-on help that we provide here, the one-to-one attention. This is my calling,” said Jennifer.
Jennifer has a learning disability. As a student in public school, she knew that she was not getting the support she needed. She would return home to her father upset about her day.
“They weren’t teaching me the stuff that I needed to learn,” shared Jennifer. “They would have me in a classroom all day baking cookies. That’s all I would do. They would put me in front of baking tools and say, ‘Oh here, bake chocolate chip cookies.’ I didn’t want to do that.”
Understandably, Jennifer’s father was upset and started looking for other options for his daughter. After learning about Brookville Center, he met with the late Brookville Center Senior Director, Marianne Klotz, who told him that here, Jennifer would be exposed to a full range of academic studies.
“My father liked this school for me. I got to make new friends and was able to learn more things. I did math, science, social studies; we would do all that as a group activity and learn life skills as opposed to just baking cookies.”
Jennifer attended BCCS until the age of 20, graduating in June 2003. She developed a good relationship with the school staff and Marianne Klotz. She loved being at the school and always hoped to work with children. After graduation, school administrators offered her the opportunity to work at the school for a few hours a week.
After her trial period, Jennifer was offered a Teacher Assistant (TA) position and has worked there even since. Jennifer primarily worked as a Float TA assigned to different classrooms before supporting a permanent classroom.
After having her daughter in 2009, Jennifer returned to her Float position. She was able to secure a day care spot for her daughter at the school, making it both convenient and flexible for her to continue her job.
Jennifer continues to thrive at BCCS and build greater independence. Recently, Jennifer learned to drive. She now is able to spend less time commuting and enjoying weekend trips with her daughter.