It’s 7 a.m. on a Tuesday. Junior Laura Kimmel drives to the Goodrich campus and starts her morning as a student staff member at Adventure Kids, playing on the playground with lower schoolers as the sun comes up. By 7:30, Kimmel keeps an eye on kids and looks out for buses, because as they arrive, she needs to open the gate for more kids to join the morning AK space.
“[The regular staff] bring the kids inside at 7:40 a.m., and I leave [for the upper school] at 7:45 a.m.,” Kimmel said.
Currently, Kimmel works at the before-school program two mornings and the after-school program two afternoons. Although the early mornings can be a little tiring before school, she has found it manageable and does not mind working the morning shifts.
The lower school’s Adventure Kids program, which includes before and after-school care, is a staple of the Goodrich campus. It is a time to hang out with friends, play outside, and build with Legos or Perler Beads. Most students who attend the lower school experience Adventure Kids, also known as “AK,” at one time or another. It’s unique that upper schoolers work in the program. Currently, eight students, primarily juniors and seniors, have part-time jobs there.
Kimmel began working at Adventure Kids over the summer. She heard good things about the opportunity from several older students who worked the job before and decided to apply.
“I reached out to Julie Francis, who runs it, and told her I was interested,” Kimmel said. “Then I went to the lower school, did an interview, and started working there over the summer.”
Junior LaRon Johnson also started at AK over the summer “Just to get some extra money,” he said.
He has stayed on, “because I really enjoy talking to kids,” Johnson said.
Kimmel and Johnson agree that it’s a good job.
“It’s really fun. All the kids there are well-behaved for the most part, and they’re nice, but they also kind of just do their own thing. A lot of them want you to play the games with them. They know what they want to do; they just want you to do it with them,” Kimmel said.
Playing is the best part.
“I like doing Perler Beads,” Kimmel said, “and then I also like (it’s really cute) a lot of the little girls like to do my hair, and I just think that’s really cute.”
“I know for me as a kid after school,” Johnson said, “I really wanted to have fun, and I know having somebody, especially an older person, that’s down to play would have been the world to me at that time.”
“I want to provide that,” he added.
The afternoon schedule mixes homework and outdoor time.
“After school, the [kids] have to be outside until four, [except] third through fifth graders can do homework during that time inside,” Kimmel said. “But [otherwise], they have to be outside until four, and then after four, [the kids] can go inside and have free time.”
Having prior experience working as a camp counselor at Film and Frolic, an SPA summer camp for middle school students, Kimmel was excited to work with kids again.
Johnson learned about Adventure Kids from recent grad Ethan Carter (’24), who told him that it was a lot of fun. Johnson is surprised by how much he enjoys working with kids. “It feels like I’m kind of a kid’s safe space. I think I like being able to look over younger people,” he said.
Johnson’s experience working at Adventure Kids has sparked an interest in working with youth, in some way, as a career.
“I would definitely work with kids in the future; I just don’t really know what way I want to do it,” he said. “I don’t think I want to do it in the school setting; I want to expand my horizons a little bit and teach kids in a different way.”
For now, though, Kimmel and Johnson learn and work between the Randolph and Goodrich campuses.
