Stories of Resilience with Alex Bernath & Miken Oliver
Today, tomorrow, and for an indefinite future
We face the challenges of the ever-changing landscape of education.
Our schools have seen hard times before
In each of these cases the school leader’s character, values, resilience, and mental strength have been put to the test.
In this fourth episode of my 6 part podcast series, The Stories of Resilience, where I share the stories of 6 school leaders who came together with their parents and teachers and made it out on the other side.
Alex Bernath & Miken Oliver lead the Nourish Early Learning Center in Oregon, Ohio. Alex actually lives in Brooklyn, New York, and leads the center from there with her husband Josh and her two children ages one and three.
Miken is the director of the day-to-day and is married to Tim and a mom of three children, ages five, three, and one. They have a pretty large center of 25 teachers, 95 families, and 114 children.
Nourish is their mom’s school. Their mom took great pride in building and creating a legacy. When tragedy hit, and the sisters lost their mother, father, and their sister in a fatal car crash, they made a decision to keep their mom’s legacy alive and continue the center.
In today’s episode, Alex and Miken share their story and what running a school of excellence means to them.
In this episode, they talk about..
- Surviving loss and grief is part of building the mental resilience required in a strong leader.
- There are practices around creating rest time and nurturing time for yourself.
- Learning the tools to release the stress of the day and how therapy has really impacted their lives.
- Some of the tough decisions they had to make during the pandemic.
- How all of their muscles – the communication, courage, and leadership muscles – were stretched amidst the pandemic.
- How to effectively set and communicate your boundaries without coming off as selfish.
- Some of the dreams for Nourish Early Learning Center
…and so much more!
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
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The Build to Last Workshop is a FREE 4-day sprint on June 1-4, 2021 to help you remove overwhelm and interruptions to building a calendar and life that serves your personal and professional leadership goals.
What You Will Learn in Build to Last Workshop on June 1-4:
#1: How to create a sustainable calendar that has priorities and projects that move your school forward
You deserve to have more time for family and the quality of life you want.
#2: The habits for a culture of excellence
So you build a rhythm for how to design culture every day and you don’t wait for problems to happen.
#3: How to create boundaries and finish your to-do list
So you can leave work every day confident that that day’s work is done.
#4: The Four Types of Inter team Conflict
So you have the tools and scripts to navigate difficult conversations and have positive results.
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More about the show:
If you are an Early Childhood director or owner, prepare to transform your school and life with the Schools of Excellence podcast. Tune in each week to learn from Chanie Wilschanski, the founder and host of the Schools of Excellence Podcast and a mom of 4 little kids. Each episode will be packed with tools and strategies – equipping you to build schools with higher staff retention, teacher motivation, parent partnership, collaborative culture, and beautiful quality of life.
Every week, Chanie shares the truth about the journey to excellence, the strategies that are working TODAY, and the mindset about the critical decisions and choices that you make every day which impact yourself, your teachers, parents, family, and children who you serve every day.
In addition to weekly solo episodes, she’ll also be inviting industry leaders and the changing makers of the landscape of education to give listeners the insides knowledge of what it takes to sustain excellence.
Don’t miss an episode, subscribe today for everything you need for your leadership journey!
