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As much as it is important to provide kids a place to explore creativity, have a hobby, and make friends, it’s important to provide a place for kids to learn important life skills. As the world continues to change around us, it’s more important than ever that we take our role in the lives of young people seriously and we focus on how we can help them be their best selves. It is really important to us that we prepare our dancers for life outside the studio. Our dancers love the studio and feel safe in our space, so it’s the perfect place for them to work on life skills, too. They get to learn and grow in a place where their interests and their need for important skills intersect. We are really proud of this program we have built that provides our dancers opportunities to utilize their skills in new ways. Our admin assistants are learning real-world job skills at CC & Co., but also getting to dive deeper into an industry, place, and culture that they already love and feel safe in. 

We are so thankful for them and the work they do! They are incredibly helpful, talented, and innovative, and we wouldn’t be able to accomplish everything we do without them. We thought it would be fun to sit down with some of them to chat so you could get to know our amazing admin assistants! 

The admin assistant program was developed at the beginning of this dance year by Ms. MeLissa Nobling and is directed by Ms. MeLissa and Mrs. Janine. The purpose of the program is to allow the dancers at CC & Co. to learn about administrative work and to learn important life skills in a place they already feel comfortable and supported. There are currently 8 admin assistants in the program. 

Miss Janine noted that one of the things she has been most proud of with the students this year has been their growth in phone conversations! In today’s world, basically no one wants to talk on the phone. Many people don’t even feel comfortable speaking on the phone or in-person any more. She said that she has loved to see them grow in confidence in their people skills, most notably their phone skills! 

Without further ado, we would love to introduce you to some of our admin assistants: Victoria, Robyn, and Sebastian, and share with you a little bit about them and their experiences at CC & Co. 

Meet Victoria! She has been dancing at CC & Co. for the last five years and she is a freshman in high school. Before coming to CC & Co., Victoria lived in New York. She started dancing when she was 3 years old. She also enjoys archery and painting in her free time. Victoria wanted to go deeper at CC & Co. and thought that being an admin assistant would be the perfect way to do that. Before becoming an assistant she said that she would hang around the studio helping with different tasks and being of assistance where she could. Through the admin assistant program, Victoria has learned new skills such as how to act in the workplace in a professional way, how to answer the phone properly, and how to manage her time. As an admin assistant, Victoria loves to see what is going on behind the scenes with things like the Gala and noted that seeing all of the hard work that goes into the events gives her a greater appreciation for her teachers. Victoria said that she loves being part of the admin assistant team and feels like they have a family bond between them. 

We are so excited to have Victoria on our admin assistant team and so thankful for the hard work she does!!

Next up is Robyn! Robyn is in our Fusion Company and has been at CC & Co. for the last seven years. Dance is her favorite hobby and she decided that she wanted to be an admin assistant so she could learn more about what happens behind the scenes at CC & Co. Some of the tasks she does include printing the room schedule, having handouts ready, and helping with Gala costumes. Robyn mentioned that she likes being an admin assistant because you not only get to help make the studio a better place for yourself but for your classmates and other families, as well. She enjoys being part of what makes the studio run smoothly and making connections with students and families who she might not otherwise meet. Some of the most important things she has learned as admin assistant have been how to make copies and how to answer questions on the spot in a professional way. The funniest thing that has ever happened to her as an admin assistant was when someone called the studio on a Tuesday afternoon and started ordering a pizza! 

It was really cool to hear from Robyn that she is learning life skills in the admin assistant program and that she is making connections with families and students who she wouldn’t have otherwise met. We are really grateful for all of that she does as part of the team! 

Finally, meet Sebastian! Sebastian has been dancing at CC & Co. since 2016 and is a junior in high school. He loves to dance, but is also really interested in acting, playing video games, and working on his car. He joined the admin assistant program because someday he would like to own a dance studio, and he knew that this would be the best way to gain the experience he needs to do that. Sebastian said that he is excited to be learning what happens behind the scenes at the studio so he can use it in his future career. Sebastian really pondered how he could sum up the admin assistant role in one word and finally landed on “riveting” as he described his day to day activities and they included things as diverse as creating Google sheets, helping guide students and parents to where they need to be, fitting students for dance shoes, changing a lightbulb, and more. In addition to the variety of tasks Sebastian is responsible for in his role, he said that he has learned time management, how to delegate and facilitate, how to communicate professionally, and proper phone etiquette. The thing that stood out the most in our interview with Sebastian was that he said this was a safe place to learn. He explained that it’s okay to make mistakes and to learn from them, and in his words, “You don’t feel like the worst person in the world in this job if you make a mistake,” which is really the thing we strive for the most in our admin assistant program, with our staff, and with our students. This is a safe place. You can learn and grow and sometimes you are going to fail, and that’s okay. 

We are really proud of the work Sebastian has done on our admin assistant team and excited about his future as a dance studio owner. It is awesome to be a cog in the wheel of those big dreams, and we can’t wait to see what he accomplishes.

Our admin assistant program is more than just a group of students helping us get work done. The goal of the program is to build life skills in a safe place where students already feel supported and inspired. We want them to build foundational skills that they will need in their lives and future careers and we want the backbone to be something they already love…dance. We hope they know how appreciated they are at CC & Co. and just how valuable the work they do is. We know that their dedication and their desire to learn will take them far in life and we are thankful to be a part of their journeys!