Emily Richardson

I graduated from Purdue with a bachelor's in Family & Developmental Sciences with a concentration in Child Development in 2020. While studying for my bachelor's, I had many courses requiring me to volunteer in classrooms of multiple ages. I also interned at the Make-A-Wish Foundation, helping organize fundraisers to fund future wishes. I care deeply about children's emotional and mental well-being. As an educator, I aim to help children build the skills and confidence to grow into healthy, happy, curious people.

My previous few years of classroom experience are with a Regio-Emilia-inspired approach, which has several values in common with Progressive Education, such as respecting the whole child as a complex individual, building a sense of community, and using students' interests to guide curriculum. These shared values are why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place and are at the center of how I teach and what we deliver at Virginia Chance School. 

The outdoors is filled with loose parts and a stage for imaginative play at Chance School. Especially for younger children, a vast area of growth is risk assessment and handling their surroundings with care. The integrated outdoor curriculum here on campus provides opportunities to practice both skills as students navigate the natural surrounding and assess the risk of climbing, jumping, and balancing along narrower paths. The greenhouse, coop, and gardens allow students to handle plants delicately and learn how to care for plants and animals. Young children are at an exciting point of development where they are still developing their capacity for empathy while also being incredibly compassionate. Projects and learning environments here at Chance that facilitate the growth of these core skills are crucial to developing a child's emotional intelligence and healthy social and internal lives.

I moved to Kentucky in October 2022 to be closer to my friends. In my free time, I play board games and enjoy tabletop roleplaying games with friends, which help me keep up with the imaginative play of students.