In her first year at Antioch College, Mallory Drover joined the team at the Yellow Springs Community Children’s Center (YSCCC) as a Miller Fellow and quickly began making an impact. She engaged the children in lessons on space, environmental conservation, her home state of Alaska, and even taught the children sign language!
The second week on the job happened to be Space Week at the YSCCC. Excited and eager to share her love of outer space, Mallory dove into the planning for the week. She was able to give a presentation over story book time discussing interesting facts about the planets and even created a constellation box! Other space week activities for the children included decorating a rocket simulator, inventing their own aliens, making their own planets out of paper mache and paint, and understanding the distance between planets by walking the length of a football field.
“Perhaps one of my favorite experiences from Space Weekhappened with the after-school kids. One boy that I had not spent very much time with yet came to me with a question about outer space. One question lead to another, until we had spent over an hour talking about the science and properties of space,” Mallory states.
The team at YSCCC was so pleased with the work and enthusiasm that Mallory brought, that they chose to hire her even after her Miller Fellowship ended. She continues to make a positive impact in the lives of the children she encounters.
*excerpt taken from Mallory Drover’s blog assignment
