(Winter 2018) – For Naomi Galley and Marin Country Day School, partnering with SMART is about empowering students and providing them the best possible educational experience.
Through her role in the school as Partner Program Liaison, Naomi coordinates with teachers, families, SMART staff, and students to maintain the open lines of communication that enable each student’s success.
It’s also about making sure that the students not only feel supported, but welcomed.
“When our SMART students succeed in school, despite not having the same economic resources and opportunities as many of their classmates, I know the partnership is working,” said Naomi.
“When our students begin to see this partnership for themselves, I notice a greater sense of pride and level of comfort with being a student from an educational access program for low-income families, while simultaneously being a middle school student in affluent Marin County.”
Naomi’s commitment to the partnership and supporting SMART Scholars is reflected by Marin Country Day School as a whole. When they hosted a series of diversity workshops a few years back, the facilitator challenged faculty to define what “getting by” looked like for a SMART family in their school community.
That conversation ultimately inspired the mentoring direction that Naomi’s liaison role would take, and helped to guide the paradigm shift within the school as they began actively anticipating the support needs rather than assuming families were fine if they never reached out for help.
“Over time my role has progressed in response to need and awareness, to include coordinating translation support, outfitting students for multi-day outdoor education trips and 8th grade graduation attire, comprehensive support of the high school application process including providing rides to and from school visits, open communication with teachers when issues arise, and building strong connections between MCDS, SMART and home,” Naomi said. “For these reasons and many more, my role is viewed as valuable and essential at MCDS.”
Is your school interested in partnering with SMART? Contact Ben Buis at Ben@thesmartprogram.org for more information.
