Hello and welcome to the inaugural Meet the Staff post in which you will get a chance to know a little bit more about the teachers here at Aftercare that are privileged enough to interact with your kids every day after school. I will cover all the teachers at Aftercare over the coming weeks, but out of ease and perhaps slight vanity, I will start with myself.
Hi! My name is Evan MacKay, and in addition to working with your children I also write these blog posts. I started working at Ainsworth at the beginning of this school year and now can’t imagine not knowing many of my little friends in AfterCare.
In my time away from school I write freelance sports articles for a variety of websites. After earning an English Literature degree from University of Oregon in 2010, I was fortunate enough to able to combine two of my great passions, sports and writing, into a surprisingly stable freelance career. However, after my articles were done I often found my days somewhat empty, so I began looking for an opportunity that would be fun, challenging, and most of all rewarding.
My passion for working with kids extends back to my high school days, when I was still just a kid myself. I played basketball for four years at West Linn High School, and in the summers, the varsity players would work at a summer basketball camp. There, I discovered the unbridled joy and enthusiasm of children, and also how happy it made me to teach them something new.
Throughout college, when I wasn’t eating Top Ramen or suffering through essays on ancient literature, I volunteered at a similar after school program as ours at a Eugene elementary school, and also at the SMART Reading program. I kept up my work with SMART after graduation when I moved up to Portland, and now get the chance to do the same kind of work every day.
I am a huge Oregon Ducks fan, something I have in common with many of the students in After Care, as well as a Blazers fanatic. At the school, you can often find me on the field playing football, in the gym running Basketball Club, or up in Homework Club working through math problems and spelling tests.
While I have been at Aftercare long enough now to get to know the children, I am still working on connecting the kids to their parents. So, if you see me when you come to pick up your child, feel free to introduce yourself! I am also happy to meet the people behind the wonderful little ones we have running around our areas every day.
