Tenure: 14 years

Positions Held at GA:

• Summer Programs Assistant
• Korman Family Pavilion Coordinator

Honors Conferred:

• Community Commendation 2014-2015

Why I Stayed:

• incredible opportunities
• a great place to work

Lasting Memories:

• students
• my coworkers
• working with my wonderful daughter (Val Rodowicz)

I am thankful for:

• the experience at Germantown Academy
• the people I met along the way
• the knowledge I gained

Gifts to the Community:

• The model of a mother happily working side by side with her daughter, taking immense pride in Valentina's position, expertise, and success.
• A warm and gracious welcome to everyone who visits GA.
• A Summer Programs office that hums with efficiency.
• A big and open heart, a willing ear, and the (genetic we are told) ability to "tune the kids out."
• The willingness to help any colleague in a pinch.
• A daily dose of pretzels for the munchkins in the Child Care Center.
• The much anticipated and deeply desired announcements that buses will begin arriving at 11am due to the impending storm.
• The artistic display of the school's embarrassingly endless supply of lost and found paraphernalia.

What Rich Schellhas Will Remember Most about Tina:

I'm not sure how any human being can answer phone calls from worried parents while checking someone's ID while helping a student locate a lost mitten while a visiting pop trio is singing in the corner, and a gaggle of Middle Schoolers is begging for ping-pong balls – all at the same time, every hour of every single day. Tina Rodowicz embodies a patience, kindness, and perseverance rarely seen in our world. While we know Tina best for being GA's smiling front line, for many years before that she was the engine keeping our summer camps running at high speeds and in top form. While I will miss all of these things, perhaps most I will miss seeing Tina interact every day with her shining daughter, Val, who works in GA's Business Office. I'm pretty sure my mother and I wouldn't last one hour working together (much less several years), but Tina and Val have the magical energy of the closest of friends who happen to also be mother and daughter; I will truly miss seeing their gentle, laugh- and love-filled rapport here at GA.

Memorable Quotes:

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

"Don't sweat the small stuff."

Next Page of Life:

• The lake and more family and friends.

What I Will Miss Most:

• Pretzels to the little ones, snow days and two-hour delays.

From the email to the community:

On an exceptionally frigid January morning, snow swirling through the parking lot, I pull my coat collar close, swipe my keycard quickly, heave open the door to the Korman Family Pavilion and am greeted with a truly genuine, "Good morning, Maggie." I feel immediately warmer. Welcomed. Home. Tina Rodowicz is many things to many people at GA, but this morning she is my very own portable space heater, radiating energy and heat. I can leave the freezing temperatures outside; Tina's world is toasty and warm.

Tina's world: the light-filled, kid-filled, noise-filled Pavilion, hub of the GA campus, requires an expert multi-tasker, someone to graciously answer the phone, patiently unlock the Pavilion door, considerately explain to visitors why she needs to see their ID, and generously dole out pretzels, daily, to the children from the Child Care Center. Tina does it all with warmth, a huge smile, and the patience of Job.

Tina's world also included the close-knit Summer Programs' cottage where she affably explained the finer points of Excel and walkie-talkie etiquette to new colleagues, answered parents' myriad questions, sleuthed out employee clearances, and attended numerous camp fairs to spread the good GA word. Tina ruled this world firmly, but gently, and those who shared this world with Tina were content.

Now Tina's world is relocating to a newly renovated home on Sunshine Lake in New Jersey to which she will be retiring with her husband at the beginning of June. Sunshine. Hmmm. There are no coincidences.

For all the light and warmth and energy you have radiated at GA, we thank you, Tina. Enjoy the path to the lake that life has presented, and which you so richly deserve. - Maggie McVeigh 1760, Director of Professional Development