Erica Kreider
In 2016, Erica Kreider graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a Master’s degree in Special Education (SPED) with a specialty in Adapted Education and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Excited to begin her career, and before she became part of a tenured system, she decided to go on a quick mission trip to Rwanda. What she saw there changed her life. Rwanda is a beautifully clean country with an intact yet underdeveloped infrastructure. The school she visited on the trip, Sonrise School, has a nursery composed of 80 students divided over three classrooms, each with only one teacher. There is no plan for differentiation, identifying, or instructing Special Education students, other than to “love them extra”. She fell in love with the students’ curiosity and the staff’s dedication to their success.
She stayed!
She worked (voluntarily) at Sonrise for three months establishing specialized instruction for about eight kids, sharing strategies with the other existing teachers, and creating an SAT Prep class for the high school.
For Erica, the opportunity to use her knowledge to instruct other teachers, create a higher academic bar for both special education and non-special education students, and to work on all of that in an atmosphere that invites innovation and educational growth has been an exciting start to her career.
