January 2021: Melissa Fennema

1/24/2021 4:46 pm

The PSE PTA is thrilled to announce our January volunteer spotlight: Melissa Fennema.  Melissa is a relatively new PSE community member. She’s done a fabulous job coordinating our new pilot Buddy Program. See below why Melissa so eagerly took on this position...

I signed up for the Buddy program because I know how hard it is to be new to the school -- and to the community since I am not from here -- and I'm so grateful for the moms who took me under their wings. Not just for their friendship, but also to have a place to go with questions about school. I had hoped to pass down that PSE welcome to a new batch of families, but with the pandemic it's been so hard. We started doing Friday playdates after and I wish there were more activities we could do to build a community for these families; but, because we're all so disconnected this year, it's been tough to form a bond. I hope that with this spotlight maybe a few more families will join our group... hopefully ones that are a bit less introverted than me and can help make this group feel like families that looking out for each other.

And some get-to-know-you questions:

• Hometown: I'm from all over, I was born in Salt Lake City but moved to Southern California and then to San Francisco and then to Costa Rica and now here. However, I bought my own house in the city last year so now I'm proud to say I'm from Baltimore. 
• Your elementary school and its mascot: I went to Schroeder Elementary school in Huntington Beach California and our mascot was.... ummm.... *quickly googling*.... Mustangs. 
• Your children and grades at PSE: My kids at PSE are Alex in 2nd with Ms. Harris and Nicolas in Kindergarten with Ms. Moore. 
• Profession: I am a Real Property Assessor for the State of Maryland. My job is to make sure all houses in our community are correctly valued for property taxes. This is important because my job directly brings in money for the State and County to run schools like PSE.
• Favorite vacation spot: Some place I've not been to yet
• Favorite movie: The ones that tickle me the most right now are Trolls and LEGO movies.
• Why do you volunteer at PSE? See above!