Hi, my name is Marisa Iannaccone.

I am a teacher candidate for the Inclusive Elementary Educator Program at Portland State University. I was born in Santa Monica, California in 1991. My father is Italian, and my mother         is German and Welch. When I was born my mother was 21 and my father 42. They met on a   movie set, where my father was a costume designer and my mother was a wardrobe assistant. Both my parents loved their jobs which required a lot of travel. I understand that I probably grew up very different than many of my classmates. Spending days on movies sets, or playing in wardrobe houses was commonplace.

 

My father's family is first generation Italian-American. He was the first in his family to go to college, as well as earn a Master's degree. His mother worked in the garment industry in New York City, in order to save enough money for him to attend college. From an early age my father instilled the importance of investing in education; his view of education started me on my current trajectory.

My interest in special education started when I was in the 5th grade, at McKinley Elementary School. The special education teacher wanted someone to accompany a student named Sarah during PE so that she could interact with a peer rather than an aid. What started as a way to get out of PE became something that I looked forward.

 

Sarah advanced to middle school with our class. So I started going into her room once a week to eat lunch with her and her classmates.The next year I had the opportunity to be a classroom assistant so I decided to work with Sarah's class. I got to spend a period every day for the entire year working with Sarah and the other students in her class. Until this point, I aspired to be a doctor, but my experiences with these students made me want to be a development pediatrician. I thought being a developmental pediatrician would be the perfect mix of my love for medicine and working with children with disabilities.

 

In high school, I continued to work with Sarah. In addition, I had the opportunity to work with an incredible program called Circle of Friends. Barbara Palilas the speech pathologist at Santa Monica High School noticed that many of her students sat with their aides at lunch and didn't interact with general education students. In response to the need, she started a program that connected general education students with a special education student for lunch once a week. When I was at Santa Monica High School, there were enough general education students in the program that each of the 45 special education students were able to eat lunch with a group of general education students every day of the week! I got involved with the program and ended up being the vice president my junior year and president my senior year. Inclusion was such a big part of my high school, and not just for the high functioning students who were integrated into the general education classrooms; but for all students no matter how severe their disability. My Senior year I got the opportunity to walk Sarah across the stage at graduation.

 

I went on to college up here in Oregon, at Oregon State University. I started out still with the goal to become a developmental pediatrician. I double majored in biology and human development and family studies (HDFS). After two years of struggling through the high-level science classes, I realized I was not cut out for medicine and that I could still make an impact of the lives of children with disabilities in a different profession. I dropped biology and focused my attention solely on HDFS. Summer before senior year of college came and I was pretty sure I wanted to work with children with disabilities in the capacity of working for a nonprofit, like Autism Speaks or Special Olympics. I looked into Masters programs in non-profit management and even started applying. The same summer I applied to work at the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis. Because of my previous experience working with young children I was offered the lead kinder club position. There was a large need for supplementary kindergarten programs in Corvallis because kindergarten was half day. I jumped right in, never teaching children in a formal setting before, but quickly found out I loved it. I spent a lot of time researching kindergarten curriculum and benchmarks. I was given very little direction and in charge of 24 kindergarteners from 11:15-3:00 every day for the school year. I quickly fell in love with my students and their eagerness to learn and absorb new information, as well as loved leading them on this journey. I started looking into education, particularly special education programs. My senior year of college came and went and my kiddos graduated from my program.

 

I was accepted to a program that partnered with the US military for the 2014-2015 school year. I spent 5 months, August to December living in Key West, Florida on a US Navy base; Where

   I worked at the Child Development Center. I spent a majority of my time with the pre-toddlers           (walking to 2 and the pre-schoolers). I spent another 5 months January to May in Germany, on a       US Army base where I worked as the one of the main teachers in a pre-school room.

 

     September of 2014 I found the IEEP program and was so excited there was a program that met         my exact needs and interest; a Masters as well as two teaching licenses. Since my acceptance I         have continued to fall in love with teaching and leading children through this crazy thing we call        the education system.