Emily (22 / Ms. ), English, living in United Kingdom looking for Au Pair & Live-in Tutor job in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA & Fiji for 6-12 Months

My undergraduate degree is in Education with Psychology and Counselling; I’ve been able to take a variety of modules across all three disciplines. In counselling, notable modules I’ve taken are ‘Counselling Skills for Professional Practice’ and ‘Counselling Children and Young People’. I also took ‘Therapeutic Approaches to Wellbeing’ in my final semester. These modules have allowed me to develop and practice counselling and active listening skills which I can confidently say is one of my strengths. This, along with the ‘Emotional Literacy and Learning’ module, has given me a refined emotional intelligence and deep understanding of how to help children develop self-awareness and confidence as they learn to navigate complex emotions.

As I’ve taken 2 modules of ‘Developmental Psychology’, one of ‘Social Psychology’ and ‘The Psychology of Education’, I have a very thorough knowledge of the psychological theories of learning and childhood development theories, and I’m well educated on various learning impairments such as ADHD, autism and dyslexia.

I had the absolute pleasure of working at Camp Wicosuta in NH, USA in 2022 as a Camp Mom. This meant I was working all day every day with up to 20 young girls from the ages of 7 to 9, and I lived in a bunk with 5 of those kids. Being a camp counselor absolutely transformed my life and I grew so much during my time at camp. I learned that Firstly, kids will simply not respond to you unless you are confident in your decisions, actions and beliefs, and while I definitely did not feel this confidence right away, after not very long it became like second nature to me.

Being a camp counselor not only boosted my self-confidence, but I found my social confidence rocketing too. I made mistakes, I failed, I had bad days- and that was okay. I overcame it and learnt from it. I was silly and loud. I sang songs about turtles having babies and make the word ‘WOW’ using my hands and face. I dressed up as a banana and wore crazy hats and socks. I fell off of paddleboards and got surrendered to the counselor dunk tank. I also got to use my creative passion to choreograph two welcome show performances and a flash mob! I also wrote 5 song parodies which I've continued to do now, in preparation for camp next year (summer camp version of 'We Don't Talk About Bruno', anyone?).

I left Camp Wicosuta a better person than I arrived. I learned something new every single day, from as trivial as learning that I don’t like buffalo sauce to as vital as how to best support a child who is experiencing anxiety. While there was no way I could've already known all of the things I needed to before starting the job, I found myself learning how to be a camp counselor as I was doing it. And every single day I got better at it. This is why starting my journey as an Au Pair does not frighten me- because I know that I will learn and improve along the way. Camp gave me so many new skills and strengthened my old ones: negotiation, resilience, timekeeping, adaptability, leadership, and teamwork are just some of the most significant. Attached to my profile is a letter of recommendation from my supervisor at camp, Claire Morrison, who is herself a primary school teacher in Scotland.

I’ve also been on 2 fantastic placements in primary schools that allowed me to integrate theory and practice, as well as reflect on myself as a young professional and get some real on-the-job experience working with kids. I have been a Teaching Assistant in Years 2, 5 and 6, including an SEN school. This has allowed me to teach small groups of learners. Having taught students in Asia and Africa, I am enthusiastic about different languages and cultures. I have an A* GCSE in French and have continued to develop and practice my French language. I hope to learn about your culture, and teach you about mine.