1. The Story of Zari Weaver, from child to adult and her adventures at Madison College Child and Family Centers

2. Zari’s Story…… This is the story of Zari Weaver, her mom Sonja Onuchuku and her family and how Zari grew from a little child attending our center in 1995 to a student leader in our classroom!

3. ZARI Zari started attending the Child and Family Center at the age of 3 along with her younger brother Alex. She currently lives in Madison with her mom, Sonja Onuchuku and her brothers, Alex (now 16) and Elijah (12). As a kid, Zari enjoyed make believe play and dressing up. She was a very social person and had lots of friends! Her teachers thought she was a very good helper but as 3 years olds sometimes are, she was strong minded!

4. Zari has chosen to explore the field of social work. She has a tendency to find herself in high stress situations; juggling school, work, friends and other activities in life. Based on her experience as being the “caretaker,” she feels things can begin to be too much for a teen to handle, so she decided to help high school kids that are part of families in high stress situations. She has a sincere compassion for helping others and she shows this while working with the children in the Child and Family Center!

5. HAPPINESS Zari has been working at the center as a teacher assistant / student employee since 2011, she came to us highly qualified and certified to work at a early childhood setting. She finds working here very relaxing and rewarding. There are the responsibilities of teaching children but she enjoys being with them and loves them. “They change your whole mood!”

6. LEARNING Zari’s mom, Sonja shared with us that Zari learned how to share, learned her colors and had many favorite songs that she would sing all day and night. Zari’s mom remembers asking one of her teachers for a copy of the tapes so she could hear the words to the songs she was singing! She says “it was fun to hear what she was learning without really knowing it! Oh, the power of lyrics.”

7. WONDER & DELIGHT Sonja enjoyed watching the progress in the children’s learning. She enjoyed hearing about the experiments. For example, what bounces from the loft? All the kids were so attentive and eager to see if the tomato bounced or if it went splat! Zari remembers experiencing lots of fun times with her favorite teacher, Joei. She spent time with her watching movies and painting nails when Zari went to her home for A SPECIAL BONDING TIME when Mom needed additional assistance….. TEACHERS

8. EDUCATION IN A FAMILY ENVIRONMENT Zari’s mom feels that having Zari attend the center allowed her to stress the importance of learning and how you can have fun going to school. There were numerous family events that most of the families participated in and most of the teachers were like family.

9. FEEDBACK FROM MOM….. “This may be the first time some of your children have been in a early childhood program, I feel you have picked an awesome place and group of teachers to be apart of your child’s learning experience. The different things the children are able to learn are endless! I hope your child(ren) enjoy the center as much as my children did.” Zari’s mom graduated from Madison College in 1998 with an Associates Degree with qualifications to be a Medical Administrative Assistant. For the last 6 years, she has been working at Meriter Hospital as a Health Unit Coordinator and Monitor Technician. She has also returned to Madison College and is currently studying in the nursing program.

10. Zari now, in 2012!!!