Staff Story: Michelle Siegel

Michelle watches Early Learner Grace put the finishing touches on her binoculars for the annual Extended Programs safari.

Staff Story: EP Core Supervisor Michelle Siegel

By Nicole Fash, Director of Marketing and Communications

Trinity’s Extended Programs Core Supervisor, Michelle Siegel, knows a thing or two about what it takes to make things happen and the power of perseverance. Her whole life, she has met challenges head on, rising above overwhelming obstacles and taking the lead when called to do so. She also thinks that being silly and having the opportunity to connect with children is the best part of her job. Michelle grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. She and her sister, who is only 20 months older, were raised by their dad. Their grandparents, Doris and Abraham, a.k.a, Boomy, also played an important role in their upbringing. “My dad was a police officer for almost 40 years, so he ran a pretty tight ship at home,” says Michelle. “Doris and Boomy were honestly the best grandparents on earth. They would let us dress them up; give them makeovers; and play doctor and operate on them, which included delivering babies, a.k.a., Cabbage Patch Kids. They came to all our class parties in elementary school, and all my classmates always used to want them to be their grandparents, too.” Michelle says that her family’s biggest pastime was to visit Disney. “Most of my family memories center around Disney,” she recalls. “My grandpa was even up for going on Splash Mountain when he was 72 years old, after undergoing double bypass surgery, just to help my sister overcome her fear of going on the ride.” Supported by her loving family, Michelle had a busy childhood and adolescence. On top of her schooling, she began training as a gymnast when she was three years old, and it quickly became her top extracurricular activity. At the age of five, Michelle was invited to join a competitive team and competed until she was nine, when a lack of funds put a hold on her training. Undeterred, she continued to hone her skills by tumbling at open gyms. When her family was in a financial position for Michelle to recommence her formal instruction, a hurricane destroyed her childhood gym. Two years later, when she was 14, the gym had been rebuilt and Michelle exchanged working as a summer camp counselor for her gymnastics tuition. That decision changed her entire career path, and she still coaches gymnastics to this day, subbing at Intown Tumbling and Yoga for Kids. “My coaching duties started with just summer camps but evolved into me teaching classes for kids ages 2–12,” says Michelle. “Not only did I enjoy what I did, but I honestly felt like I was good at it. I pushed myself to be patient with my gymnasts, but I also knew I was a coach who provided constructive criticism rather than an easy ‘great job’ when I knew they could do better. I feel like as a coach I’m tough but fair.” While she continued to coach, Michelle stopped her gymnastics training in high school to pursue musical theater, spending hours after school each day in rehearsals. President of her school’s drama department and the thespian representative for her school district that was composed of more than 20 schools, Michelle performed in seven shows. While theater consumed Michelle’s high school career, when she was 17, her lifelong coach suddenly passed away of a brain aneurysm. She and the rest of the gymnasts stepped up to support his wife and keep the gym going. Through the summer after her senior year of college, Michelle took on the role of camp director, during which she organized summer camp participants’ daily activities and acted as master of ceremonies for camp events. “I realized then that I loved running camps, which is one of the reasons I love to do what I do now,” says Michelle. Finding much success as a gymnast, coach, and performer, Michelle was also a high academic achiever. Placed in enrichment (gifted) classes at the age of seven, she participated in advanced classes in middle school and AP and honors classes in high school. She maintained high academic honors in college, consistently landing on the dean’s list.

After learning about all her pursuits, leadership roles, and achievements, it’s astounding to discover that through it all Michelle was chronically ill. Constantly fighting respiratory infections from the time she was a baby, Michelle would oftentimes end up in the hospital for days at a time. Misdiagnosed with asthma while she was in the Third Grade, the first time she learned about the word quarantine was when she was hospitalized for a week with RSV at the age of 15, then required to isolate at home for two weeks.

Fun Facts about Michelle Siegel

Favorite food: Cookie dough fl autas Favorite musician: Ben Rector

Secret talents: Performing various circus tricks: spin plates, devil sticks, Chinese yoyo, and more Words of wisdom for Trinity students: “Hold onto that child-like imagination. It’s truly a gift to be able to have the ability to think outside of the box we tend to end up in as we grow older.” Favorite movie and TV show: Holiday Inn (1942) and The Doctor Blake Mysteries Favorite book: Paper Towns by John Green On her bucket list: Learn ASL; perform on a Broadway stage; own her own sleepaway camp; receive a private acoustic concert from Ben Rector

Michelle is pictured with her dad and sister in a recent photo. It was during one of those respites at home that Michelle set her path toward social work. “When I was 13, I was home sick from school and the TV was on the Lifetime channel,” she says. “A movie came on called For the Love of a Child. It’s the true story of how two actresses in the 1950s went on to create the Childhelp organization. The story of children suff ering abuse was horrifying but also awoke something in me that made me want to follow in their footsteps and be a part of something bigger than myself.” Alongside her pursuit of this passion, she continued to seek out answers from doctors to her health issues. The older she got, the more frustrated Michelle became that doctors treated her symptoms but did not search for a diagnosis. By the time she was in college, Michelle did not participate in any activities outside of her studies because of the frequency and severity of her illnesses. Each time she was sick, her dad would drop everything and drive three hours one way to take care of her or bring her home until she was well. After a particularly bad respiratory infection that landed Michelle in the ICU for two-and-a-half weeks during her sophomore year of college, her dad made the decision to retire early to help her full time. It was that same school year, when Michelle was 20 years old and on the cusp of medically withdrawing from college, that she fi nally received an answer. She had common variable immunodefi ciency (CVID). Despite its name, CVID is a rare immune system disorder that causes individuals to be highly susceptible to illness as they have low levels of the serum immunoglobulins and antibodies that are required to fi ght off infections. With a diagnosis in hand, Michelle immediately began treatment, which consisted of intravenous immune globulin transfusions. By the time she was 22 and a senior in college, the transfusions were working, and her body was able to fi ght off infections. Michelle has not been hospitalized or seriously ill since then and continues to receive monthly transfusions. Michelle’s health journey has taught her a lot. “I learned that I can keep going and push through things even when they are hard,” she says. “It has taught me to listen to kids when they talk. I had a hard time describing what was wrong, but something was wrong and not enough people were listening. Kids need someone who listens to them. “Also, you don’t always know what people are going through,” she continues. “People would say to me, ‘You don’t look sick.’ I didn’t leave my house during treatments; no one saw me when I was on the fl oor sick.”

In spite of her illnesses and treatments, Michelle completed an internship with a Department of Children and Families case management organization in the post-adoption unit during the spring semester of her senior year in college.

She found herself working more with the parents instead of the children, and even though she believed that the work they were doing was important, she did not see herself in that kind of role moving forward. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a Bachelor of Social Work and a Child Welfare certifi cation, Michelle had what she refers to as her “22-year life crisis.” “I went back home to Boca Raton and to coaching at my childhood gym,” she says. “It was there that I became very invested in running the camp and started to feel like recreational programming was a great route. I didn’t know where to begin though until a colleague suggested working on a cruise ship.” A few months later, Michelle found herself boarding a Norwegian Cruise Line ship in Hawaii to work as a youth counselor. Michelle had to almost immediately disembark as the cruise line required more time to set up the logistics necessary for her monthly transfusions. In a moment of serendipity, this delay provided Michelle with the opportunity to fulfi ll a lifelong dream to work at Disney, where she worked attractions, specifi cally One Man’s Dream at Hollywood Studios, helping out wherever she was needed.

“I always wanted to work at Disney because we [her family] were such Disney people,” Michelle says. “I enjoyed the training I received, the onboarding, and learning their keys to success and how the company runs and their thought processes.” After a three-month stint at Disney, Michelle returned to the cruise ship. She and her colleagues ran all the children’s programming. Every day of the week was a diff erent theme, and each week they welcomed a new group of children on board. Michelle really enjoyed working with like-minded people who were passionate about creating memorable experiences for children, and while the job was a great fi t for her, ship life was not. She completed her six-month contract and returned to Orlando, where her dad was living at the time. Michelle began coaching part time at a nearby gym while she looked for other job opportunities and was promoted through the ranks quickly. After only eight months, she was off ered the position of general manager. Over a one-year period, she managed a staff of 40–60 staff members, handled all parental concerns, and increased the overall number of active members to make her employer the largest gym in Florida. “The job was challenging, which is what I appreciated, but it didn’t allow me any type of work-life balance, says Michelle. “I was unhappy. I always knew I didn’t want to stay in Florida and fi nally just had to take a leap of faith, which is how I ended up in Atlanta.” Michelle accepted the role of assistant general manager at The Peach Pit and moved to Atlanta in September 2018. She continued to search for the right long-term position and found it at Trinity School. “I had actually been to the campus a few times as part of my previous job,” she says. “I knew some of the kids and had heard great things about the School. I saw a job posting for Extended Programs Core Supervisor. It’s not one of those job titles you look at and go, ‘Ooooh! That’s what I’ve been looking for!’ because it’s title is a little ambiguous unless you know a lot about Trinity School. After reading the job description, I realized it hit all the major points that I was looking for. Kayleen [Director of Extended Programs] really sold me on her vision of what she wanted Extended Programs to become, and I felt like it aligned with my passion for recreational programming. She wanted it to be more than just a place kids have to go, but rather a place they want to go.” In her two years at Trinity, Michelle has already made big enhancements to the after-school program. She has introduced weekly themes, from safari to Disney, for younger students and has helped strengthen the Core off erings for Trinity’s older students. Each Camp Day, which is off ered during parent conferences, is focused on a diff erent topic, from survivor to world domination.

“My passion within recreational programming is creating moments that my students will go on to write about when they’re asked about their favorite childhood memories,” she says. “Over the years, I have learned from people who went all in, who didn’t care what other people thought, and who believed it was OK to look silly. I bring a lot of that to Trinity. Sometimes you just have to jump in, and it doesn’t matter as long as the kids are having a good time. And they are. Our students want to be at EP.”

With her passion for recreational programming, Michelle would like to own her own sleepaway camp someday, but for now, she is enjoying her time at Trinity. “Trinity is such a special place,” she says. “I’ve heard people say it before, but getting to experience it every day is so diff erent. The way all the teachers, counselors, learning specialists, Extended Programs staff , and others work together to better the child as a whole really sets Trinity apart from any other school I’ve been to. Also, here I am in my third from any other school I’ve been to. Also, here I am in my third school year at Trinity, and I couldn’t be happier.”