Please tell us a bit about yourself and your family.
I grew up in Bucks County over in Furlong. I lived there until I moved away to college. I got my bachelor’s in music education from Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, NY. I then got my masters in music from The University of Hartford. I met my husband Benjamin around this time when we were both working at the Csehy Summer School of Music. It is a summer music camp for high school students. Benjamin and I both attended as campers, but a year apart from each other. We both went back as staff and now the rest is history. We still teach there every year and have our whole family involved as much as we can. Benjamin and I were long distance for our entire relationship until we got married. He is from Canada. He moved to Bucks County for college but then moved to New York. We narrowly missed each other like that a lot.
Our family has moved around a bit over the years. We started our family in Connecticut, then spent about 8 years in Delaware before ultimately returning to Bucks County. It was a full circle moment. I didn’t think I would end up in Bucks County, but it has been so good. Now we live in Holland with our 4 kids Karsten who is 16, Jonathan who is 14, Micah who is 13 and Clara who is 10. The kids are a ton of fun. They are starting to get more independent and figure out what they want to do. We are entering the first jobs and driving school phase of life. I am also lucky to have a lot of family close by. My parents, brother, and sister in law live close by. My sister lives in Hershey, so she is also relatively close.
We really love the area and all that this community has to offer. Our community has proved how special it is over and over again with any need, community event, or anything. People really come together here.
Please tell us about your current, past, or future career.
I teach general music for grades K-6th at Rolling Hills Elementary School. I lead the choir there as well. I also teach private music lessons in my home. Primarily I am teaching piano and oboe, which is my main instrument.
I didn’t ever think of making music my job until I was in my senior year of high school. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do next in life. My band director heard me teaching a student and told me I was really good at teaching. She encouraged me to think about becoming a teacher. Once I started looking into it I got so excited. I am so grateful for my director championing that skill that she saw in me. I have had so much fun with my career and really feel like this is where I am meant to be.
I went on to get my bachelor and graduate degree in music. I had a bunch of part time jobs right out of grad school. My first full time job was teaching music at a private school in Connecticut. It was lovely. I stopped when I had my first child and turned to doing private music lessons so that I could teach out of the home. Once all four of my kids were in school I began teaching music in the classroom again. I was a substitute teacher for a bit, while also doing private teaching. 2020 was the year I started teaching full time again. What a year to jump back in. Now, I have been teaching in the Council Rock school district for 4 years while continuing to teach my private lessons.
What do you love most about what you do?
I have always had a strong connection to music. Since I was a little girl music has been such a source of joy for me. It is so important to me. Music is a way to express myself and help me work through feelings of joy, sorrow, confusion, and everything in between. Music is a safe place for me. I also love the community that music creates as you work with your fellow musicians to create or conquer a piece. It is a super exciting process.
My favorite part about teaching is getting to experience this exciting feeling with the kids. I love that I get to expose them to as much music as possible. It is so cool to witness music becoming a part of these kids and sharing this passion with them. I love the process of getting to set a solid foundation for these kids and then seeing the building blocks start to be formed. It is really special to see a kid go from just playing some notes to actually feeling the music they are playing. They are becoming musical in their own right. It is a deep connection that I feel honored to get to share.
What are some of your favorite restaurants in the area?
We love Vecchia Osteria and La Stalla. We also like Jules Pizza, The Langhorne Coffee House, and Cafe Madison is so good. It is such a lovely community space. I love all of the pictures on the walls.
Where is your favorite place you have traveled and what is next on your travel bucket list?
I love to travel! Honestly take me anywhere anytime and I am good. I would love to go to Egypt one day though. I have had the opportunity to travel a lot over the years, and I am so grateful. I love experiencing new cultures and places. One of my favorite places is Germany because I have family there. They live in the Black Forest area. They are so warm and welcoming. Another favorite is Hungary. The culture there just blew me away. The language is so beautiful and complex. The people are so rich with personality. Hungary made a huge impact on me. I also got to experience it through a mission’s trip lens and that meant a lot. There is something so special to me about serving on missions trips. Seeing people in countries that have far less than us with far more joy than we could ever imagine. They invite us into their homes and share all that they have with us. Experiencing people making a beautiful life out of so little is very humbling. It is an experience like none other.
What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
I am a big chick flick fan. My enduring favorites that I will always watch are; Mickey Blue Eyes, Devil Wears Prada, Miss Congeniality, Fried Green Tomatoes, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. I love Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep so anything they are in I will usually watch. I love Survivor. I got into it during the pandemic, so I am a late fan. My kids tell me I should go on the show one day. If they ever do a sibling’s season again my brother and I may consider it.
What advice would you give to people?
Forgive more. There are a lot of times in this life that we have an unwillingness to understand people. We have become isolated as people and I think we have lost our community understanding. In a sense we are not “humaning” very well on that level. I feel like there is so much division that could be avoided if we could drop a bit of our perceptions and find a bit more human to human understanding. We need more of a willingness to see things from someone else’s perspective and own how we both may misinterpret things. We need to remember that we are all having this human experience together.
What is something on your bucket list?
I feel like I am kicking a lot of things down to the post having children in my house phase of life. Right now I am really focused on getting my children successfully through their school years. We are trying to work hard now, minister to our family, continue to give them as many opportunities and experiences as we can. Down the road I would love to do more traveling. I have also always wanted to go skydiving and maybe go on Survivor.
What is your favorite band or music genre?
I go through phases in my life of what I am listening to the most. My all time favorite band is called Over the Rhine. I also like a lot of classic rock. I think Freddy Mercury has one of the best voices in class rock history. Really, I connect to so many types of music it is hard to pick just one. I can turn on so many different genres and they all evoke different things at different times. I just really love most music.
What is your favorite holiday and why?
I would say Fourth of July is my favorite. It is the holiday where I don’t have to do much of anything. Most holidays I am super busy putting everything together. On The Fourth of July we just show up at my parent’s house and enjoy my dad’s homemade fireworks display. It is a great low key day as a family to just enjoy being together.
Who inspires you to be better?
Of course my kids. As a parent I want to do well by them. I am very family focused so I am constantly asking myself if I am serving them, teaching them, ministering to them well. My husband and I are always striving to encourage, support, and guide our kids more. I would also say professionally, my past teachers really push me to be better. Many of them have great successful careers themselves and they are inspiring to watch.
What are one or two of your favorite smells?
Butter, The beach, and Christmas pine trees.
What words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Family, rest, familiarity, and personality
