What is your name and position? My name is Ms. Shaba, and I am the director of student activities.
What have you learned since coming to Niles North? There is definitely a lot of diversity in the student body. From my time as a student here until now, things have definitely changed. There’s been a growth in diversity. That was the first thing I caught on to and noticed
To you, what has been the biggest surprise about Niles North? How friendly and welcoming everyone is, especially the staff. The students are amazing, everyone welcomed me with open arms and was so supportive. It seems like everyone is happy to be here.
What does a typical day of work look like for you? Well, every day is different. On a typical day, I start my morning, check my emails, go through them, and see who I need to respond to or what conversations I need to have with certain people. Then, depending on the day, I might be selling something in the concessions, working with a certain grade level, or working with certain clubs and extracurricular groups. [I’m] just being present and seeing how I can support the students and the staff as best as I can.
How has your experience building relationships at North been? It’s been great, it’s so nice. I came in here already knowing a good chunk of people—I see a lot of my former teachers here—and being able to come in and rekindle those friendships with the staff has been super amazing and fairly easy. I think that’s just because the staff here are super welcoming and so kind. And the students are great too. It’s been really easy to jump into this role, work with students, and build relationships with them.
How have your previous work experiences influenced your time here? I started off as a special education teacher and moved into working with students whose native language isn’t English. So, just being able to support students on a small scale has been so great. I think, for me, I’ve always wanted to see how I can support and help students on a broader scale. That’s really what brought me here. It’s been awesome being able to help, be present for students, and make them feel like they can find a place where they belong, or something that interests them here. I think there are so many opportunities for students to get involved, and so being able to be in that role has been awesome.
What is the most challenging part of your career? In this position, everything is just very on-the-go. Constantly having to shift mindsets, or possibly be at two places at once, and just having so much to do all the time is hard, and that’s something I’ve been working on: improving that work-life balance. I’m working until 6 or 7 o’clock at night and teaching myself that there’s always going to be work to do; I can always come back and finish it the next day.
After school, how do you unwind? I always go to the gym, whatever that looks like; maybe I’m lifting weights, maybe I’m doing yoga, but some type of physical activity. After that I’m just spending time with my puppy, and my family, and winding down; watching maybe an episode or two of one of my favorite shows.
What’s your favorite weekend activity? I would say it’s, again, maybe between working out or just spending the day with family or friends that I haven’t seen in a while and just being able to catch up with [them]. Maybe we’re going out and doing some type of activity or staying in the house—just something where I can be with my friends [or family] and catch up with them.
What is your favorite part about your job? I definitely enjoyed meeting so many new people and being able to work with so many people. Having access to, again, just work with kids on such a broad scale has been so amazing. I’ve already met so many great students, and we haven’t even hit October. That’s definitely the best part
What do you hope to achieve in your first year here? I think my focus now is just to really learn the culture of the school and what past traditions have been. I came from [Niles] West, you know, North and West are very different. My goal, really, is just to understand the school and the people, see what the needs are, and see what I can do to work on those needs or continue things that have been done in the past.
In a world of superheroes, what would be your greatest weakness? I don’t know if this counts as a weakness, but sometimes I always want to say yes to people. I always feel bad, I just want people to be happy. I just get stuck in this thing where I can’t say no. Then it puts me in a corner where I have to overwork myself to help.
