Written by: Gabby Lasater, Social Services Intern
Hi, my name is Gabby Lasater. I’m seventeen years old and a senior at the Academy for GOD. This semester I became an intern at CASE. I started this internship due to my interest in learning more about counseling with a focus on children’s psychological development. During this internship, I was able to volunteer at multiple different middle schools and develop relationships with several of the students there. Going to these CASE sites made me realize just how much I wanted to pursue learning about children’s development and even how excited I am to start my education of psychology and counseling in the future.
During my internship with CASE, I choreographed and taught a hip-hop dance for a few middle school girls. I have been doing dance since I was 5 years old and have loved every second of it. It was so wonderful to take my dance skills and put them to use by teaching a dance to CASE youth. The youth, in turn, were able to perform this dance at their end of the year ShowCASE. This is a performance where each student is able to showcase a skill they have learned this year at CASE. I was so glad I was given the opportunity to teach these girls a dance and I have loved being able to share my gift of dance with them.
The youth performed a dance, choreographed by Gabby Lasater, at our annual ShowCASE event to an audience of over 100 parents, families, and guests.
My favorite part of interning with CASE and being able to teach these young girls this dance class was watching them grow in their confidence levels within themselves. In the beginning when I was teaching them, all of the girls were timid and reserved. They were hesitant to fully express themselves in dance and worried about what others would think of them. But at the end, I could see all of their personalities coming out. They were talkative during our dance time, laughing when they messed up the moves, and overall having a fun time learning the dance. When they performed for their parents and families at ShowCASE, they were all smiles and so proud of what they had accomplished together. I’m so thankful that I was able to share my love for dance with these girls, and I hope that they will continue to learn dance in the future. Even moreso, I hope they continue to carry the confidence and freedom to be themselves that they learned in dance into whatever they pursue.
View a snapshot of our entire ShowCASE event below, including the dance.
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