FROM SUPPORT ED TO SUPP ORT ER EMILY BROCK BA RCEL ’05 A ND M A NDY GR AS S ’0 4 From Instagram posts to ScratchUp blogs, Cheshire Academy students share their thoughts and experiences in myriad ways. For alumni, social media also provides an outlet to tout the benefits of attending the Academy. “In life, we are all given a certain set of strengths. However, some individuals may need support … My goal is to assist those in need, to apply their strengths in order to lead the most self-determined lives possible.” - Emily Brock Barcel ’05 – LinkedIn Barcel (pictured top right) is unabashedly earnest in her goals as a teacher and how her education at the Academy directed her to choose special education as her career. She was enrolled in the Roxbury Academic Support Program and points to the skills she learned there as her foundation for success in college; “The Academy added a supportive environment. I felt confident, and my outlook totally changed,” Barcel said. A similar success story is told by Mandy Grass ’04 (pictured bottom right), who teaches special education math classes at Old Saybrook Middle School in Connecticut. “As a senior, I was ready for college, but without Roxbury, I would not have been. I can’t stress enough the support I received,” she said. “My whole family was worried that I would never make it through college,” Grass said. However, after learning organizational skills and executive function applications, she said the educational support she was given through Roxbury
allowed her to not only receive a bachelor’s degree, but to earn a master’s degree in special education, and a sixth year certificate in mathematics education leadership. Both alumnae list Leah Stancil and Leslie Barry, the former and current directors of Roxbury, respectively, as providing encouragement, insight, and even strictness, as the foundation for their success. “Mrs. Stancil told me ‘you’re on an elevator and you can only go up,’” said Barcel. Grass met with Stancil once a day, each week, for two years. “Everything was in a three-ring binder. That was a big help to me. I still use them,” she said. Barry helped Barcel with the task of reading, “Beowulf ”. “She took no prisoners. It was the first time I had been called out and recognized for not working to my ability,” she added. Barcel is the second generation from her family to attend Cheshire Academy, following her father, Raymond Blakeslee Brock ’74 P’05; her uncle, Peter Brock ’71; and her aunt, Sharon Brock ’71. Barcel chose to attend the Academy after she took a campus tour. “The student who gave us the tour knew every single person we passed. It was so different than public school,” she said. The success Grass realized at the Academy gave her a life-long goal to provide the same support for others. “My intention is to help the students learn skills to be independent and to lead self-determined lives.”
TO P: Em i l y B ro c k Ba rc e l ’ 0 5 B OT TO M: Mandy Grass ’04
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