Ingrid Veldhuis

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, our already struggling kindergartener was moved to online learning, which hit hard. We were notified as parents that she may not be able to move onto the first grade because of her struggles with reading. We fought through a lot of tears and breakdowns and barely squeaked by. We were worried about her as the 2020/2021 school year began because she was still struggling with her letters, sounds, and reading basic words. She constantly told us she felt stupid and that she would never get it. We didn't know what to expect as she started first grade. Then, we had the "Meet Your Teacher" ZOOM meeting and met Miss V. Right from that first ZOOM meeting, we knew that Ingrid Veldhuis was special. She took a moment to acknowledge each child in the meeting. She had such an amazing energy that you could just feel through the screen, and when she mentioned that she was a reading specialist and had even completed University of Utah's Reading Clinic practicum. (https://uurc.utah.edu/Educators/index.php) that gives her special training in reading assessment and intervention, we knew that things were going to be different. As the year started, Elizabeth continued to struggle but Miss V (as she is known by the students) kept working with Libby. However, in November 2020, she reached out to us about working with Libby on an after-school basis, as well. Of course we agreed! After a couple of weeks of after school sessions, Miss V met with us to discuss her observations and concerns. She suggested that Libby's struggles might be more than just your average struggles. She was worried that Libby might have ADHD and dyslexia based on what she was seeing during their sessions. Miss V had a previous student that was dyslexic and she took the time to reach out to that student and get information for us on a medical provider that we could work with in order to get a formal diagnosis started. She continues to spend her after-hours time working one-on-one with Libby to help her gain confidence and work on reading. She recognizes that Libby sometimes gets too overwhelmed, so there have been times where they don't focus on reading and instead, spend time together talking about planets or other things they are learning about in class. She cares about Libby's emotional health just as much as she cares about helping her learn how to read. Libby now says that her two favorite classes are art and library. She tries to read signs on buildings and does not breakdown every time we have to work on reading homework. To say that Ingrid Veldhuis has changed Libby's life would not be doing it justice. Her passion for teaching is evident the moment you meet her. The amount of love that she gives seems endless. She cares deeply about her students and is willing to take her own time, which is significant as she herself is a single-mom, to help the lives of her students. She is the gold-standard of what an educator should be and we will never be able to thank her enough for the impact she has made on our daughter's life. She deserves to be recognized for the outstanding work that she does each and every day.

Elizabeth Baker