Staff Answers: Do you have any favorite stories at Hillcrest? | 2024

When advising new staff members, many Hillcrest employees will say that there are hard days, but there are wonderful days too. And to soak up the good times while they’re happening so when things get difficult, you can remember why you’re at Hillcrest doing this good work.

Today staff share their favorite Hillcrest stories.

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Michael Kirchner, Residential Program Director at Hillcrest Center

“Feel good story…when I was at Highpoint, occasionally, we’d have a local student discharge. And I’ve run into them unexpectedly outside of Hillcrest. You never know how a former student would react to seeing you. When they say “thank you for helping me” or, “You always treated me well.” Stuff like that, it stays with you.

Funny story…I do remember a student from NYC going crazy about a flock of turkeys in front of the school building at Highpoint. He was yelling, “Oh my god. Those are the biggest pigeons I’ve ever seen!” That was funny and very eye-opening as well.

Here at Hillcrest Center, it’s watching the kids change for the better. They come in and their aggression can be high, or their self-injurious behaviors can be high. A year or two later, you see drastic changes. It’s a good feeling and you know the work being put in is worth it.”

Read Michael’s full interview here.

Denise Roller, Housekeeper at Brookside ITU

“Well, I have a lot of them. There’s a girl here. She hasn’t been here very long, she hates being here [because she’s still new.] And I took a liking to her. One day, I went to clean the dorm and she was in her room with the door shut. The poor staff who was with her was trying to get her to open the door and she was ignoring the staff. So, I put my cleaning stuff down, and I went over and I knocked on the door. I called her name and I said, “This is Miss Denise.”

She says, “Oh, hi.”

And I said, “You know what, you need to open that door.”

And she goes, “No…and why?”

I said, “We’ll I’ll tell you why. Because I’m leaving.”

And she says “What!?” and that door swung right open. “Miss Denise, why you’re leaving? Why are you leaving?”

And I said, “I’m not leaving for good. I just want to say hi. I’m leaving the dorm now.”

She goes, “Oh, you tricked me. You lied to me!”

I said, “No, no, I didn’t lie to you and I didn’t trick you. But look what I did. I got you to open that door.”

And she loved it. She tells everybody that story. If there’s a new staff, she’ll say, “Oh, you should have seen what Miss Denise did to me one day.”

I say, “Yeah, but it was a good thing, wasn’t it?”

And she’ll say, “Yeah.

Read Denise’s full interview here.

Ashley Kellogg, Former Program Director at Highpoint, Current Director of Student Services
“This summer the boys started working at the farmer’s market in Pittsfield. That’s something we have not done before. They’ve had a largely successful garden program, and they sell veggies to staff through their campus farm stand but we hadn’t really ventured out into the community. That’s something the kids really liked. It was great to see the kids proud of the products they’d helped produce, and be comfortable talking with people in the local community about Hillcrest. They were working on their social skills, introducing themselves, asking questions about the customers, using education skills. They were making change for customers and all sorts of things. So that was a really awesome experience. They’re really excited for next season too.

Another cool kid story is we had a student who was with us for a number of years. When he came in, he was really in a sad place in life. He was unsafe. He was dysregulated a lot of the time. He had experienced some really significant trauma and neglect, and he and his family were trying to work through that and get him back to baseline. It took a long time, he had to do some really hard work with his family members to get them comfortable with him going back home.

And after about two and a half years, he returned home and attended a therapeutic day program. He ended up being a kid that could speak at Hillcrest events about how positive of an experience he had and how far he had come in his treatment. This person now holds a job in the community and has graduated high school, which is amazing. And when you think about what he looked like when he walked through the doors is just incredible.”

Read Ashley’s full interview here.

Cindy Konrad, Special Education Teacher at Brookside ITU
“Oh my gosh. There are so many. They’re such a great group. Just today, our class is named after the ginkgo tree outside our classroom. So each year they do a survey. The ginkgo tree loses all its leaves at once. It’s a unique tree and so after the first frost, all the leaves fall from it. And so we survey to see who can guess closest to that date. Today was the day. We started the school day with the leaves on the tree and they all fell. Today we made a leaf pile and the students each jumped into it. And that’s kind of amazing. That literal leap of faith jumping into the leaves, when even just a month ago they wouldn’t have been able to for whatever reason. Just to see that joy and connection. Today was pretty great.”

Read Cindy’s full interview here.

Eliyah Feek, Former Assistant Supervisor, Current Residential Coordinator at Hillcrest Center
“We have a kid named Alex. When I got here, he really only spoke in Spanish to me. One day, he asked me in Spanish for onion ice cream and I said it back in English. I said, “Alex, you want onion ice cream?” And he said, ”No, you’re crazy. What are you talking about?” He was just being silly. And then he realized I could understand him. He was like, “Oh, no. No, that’s not what I want.” I said we could find a way to get it for you. We could get vanilla ice cream and put onions on top. And he said, “No, no, no!” So think that’s probably one of my favorites. He’s just so goofy and he was shocked whenever you say it back to him.”

Read Eliyah’s full interview here.

Jolene Soules, Activities Assistant at Highpoint

“I just got this job six months ago and it’s summer now, so the activities are bigger and better. So this past weekend, we took two back-to-back trips to Six Flags. It was four different students each day. Just to watch them be kids, have a blast, get on all the rides, and hear their laughter. Their excitement all the way there talking about it. Immediately it makes you start thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s how I felt when I was young and I was going to an amusement park.’ It was probably two of the best days ever here at Hillcrest. “

Read Jolene’s full interview here.

Edward Horsfall, Residential Coordinator at Hillcrest Center

“You know, there’s a student who just left last month and he was very…he had an attitude all the time. Most of the time you knew he was joking around and having a good time. He would cuss at you casually. And it was more so a term of endearment rather than a threat. After he left, he’d left a note, with his staff member and said ‘Can you give this after I leave? I don’t want this to be seen by anybody until I leave because I have to keep up my reputation.’

So it says ‘From E. You all are my family since I was six and I love you all.’ He was a good kid.”