Ellie Butler (Swimming & Diving, Vanderbilt University) grew up in Orinda. HelloNation asks student athletes one question about the place that raised them and records the answer on camera. This is Ellie Butler’s, in full.
The question
What makes your community a great place to raise a family?
The answer, as recorded
Transcript. What follows is a transcript of the video above, in Ellie Butler’s own words. It has not been rewritten, and no part of it was drafted for them.
My community in Orinda, California is a great place to raise a family. One, most importantly, because of our school systems. I grew up going to public school, as did all of my friends. Going to private school is not really a thing here, which I think really integrates the community together. All of my teachers growing up really put a lot of time and effort into getting to know each kid as an individual and making sure that all of their needs and passions were really nurtured. Specifically, I have always been super interested in science and they made sure that I knew as a woman that I could do that and I could be going to STEM fields, which I think is very important to encourage young girls to do. Further down that path, in terms of like STEM, I think that there's a lot of emphasis in our public libraries as well. It's like they had this program every summer, I remember when I was younger, where if we went in at the beginning of the summer, we got this card that we could stamp every time we read a new book. And so it really encouraged learning and reading. And I know that they still have that program now, which I think is especially important in a world that everything is digital. Having a real book, I think is super important. And third, I think that sports are super emphasized and important in my community, which connects people from all different sides of my town, amongst all different sides of sports. And it's really a big thing to put your kids in all different types of sports when they're younger. And then obviously when they're older, they pick their favorite thing. But I remember I grew up playing a variety of different sports, which allowed me to make so many new friendships, let my parents make so many new friendships, and connected my brother with his friends and further on.
Recorded by HelloNation as part of its athlete voices program and published by Hello Newswire, HelloNation’s good news newswire. The words are the speaker’s own.
Reported by Hello Newswire.