Amana Academy: Social-Emotional Support Team

Meet Patti.

Patti is a Social-Emotional Learning Coach at Amana Academy—a nonprofit, tuition-free charter school in our community. Patti and her team of counselors, social workers, and other specialists have been more important than ever this year as we continue to navigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to your generosity through the Be Rich campaign, we’ve been able to support Amana as they expand their Social-Emotional Support team by hiring people like Patti. They offer vital mental health resources and have even been able to provide on-site professional counseling services for students and staff.

Not only that, but their impact went far outside the walls of the school during the pandemic. Patti and her team went above and beyond to get students the technology and resources they needed to continue learning from home. They worked to ensure students felt seen, heard, and connected whether they were at school or home.

“Obviously the pandemic has presented challenges to our educational model,” said Patti. “Our school did not skip a beat. We jumped in and started supporting kids virtually. The counseling team is on call constantly, mitigating situations and making sure all students’ well being is thought about.”

We’re so grateful for Patti, her team, and the hundreds of other school counselors and support staff like them who have cared for our students in extraordinary ways!