Meet a woman who gets to play with children and immerse herself in music for a living. Jennifer Wszolek Chandler is the music and computer keyboarding teacher as well as the bulletin editor at Nativity of Our Savior School in Portage, IN and she is this weeks Portage Life in the Spotlight.
Chandler called multiple places home as a young child as she moved from Griffith to Valparaiso then to Ohio and then back to Griffith where she stayed until she graduated high school. Chandler moved to Portage after she got married and has happily called it home ever since.
“I like the fact that Portage is a city and we have a lot of things going, now that Mayor Snyder is here he seems really interested in making the city better,” Chandler said. “I love having access to Lake Michigan and going to the beach anytime I want. I really enjoy the community. We’re a city but we‘re not super crowded.”
Chandler attended college at Valparaiso University where she majored in Art and Education and minored in Music. Throughout her academic career, Chandler was heavily involved in music and art including band a theater in high school to jazz band and concert band in college.
“If it had anything to do with music I was in it,” Chandler said.
In 2005, she was hired to work at Nativity as a religious education teacher, and then she later took on the job as the bulletin editor. After that, the school’s principal approached Chandler and offered her the music teacher position.
“I love it. I absolutely love my job. The people I work with, the school family -they are just wonderful. Nativity is a smaller school so you get to know everybody really well. I love father Andrew, Kem Markham – the principal, all of my co-workers and I especially love the fact that I’m a special teacher. I get to watch the kids grow up from when they first start up at school all the way until they graduate. I wouldn’t trade that for the world,” Chandler said happily.
Outside of school, Chandler gets involved with the community by getting crafty. She recently finished a cardboard donation box for the Kibble Kitchen and does other artsy project. She is the chairperson for the book sale booth for the Parish Festival and she is involved with CYX youth ministries.
And when she isn’t using her talents to teach and help out in the community, Chandler loves spending time at home with her husband, painting, going for walks, and playing bass guitar.
In the future, Chandler hopes to finish her master’s degree in Education. She is currently in hot pursuit of it at VU.
Chandler has a favorite quote that she wanted to share as her good advice for us that she recently discovered to have originated from Theodore Roosevelt.
“My favorite quote is, ‘Do what you can with what you have where you are.’ Everyone wants bigger and better, but as long as you focus on what you have and what you’ve got then you’re good. I may not have a huge mansion and lots of money, but I’ve got a great family and a great job. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence, it’s greener where you water it.” Chandler said wisely.