{"id":4108,"date":"2022-07-07T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T13:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=4108"},"modified":"2025-02-13T10:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T15:49:03","slug":"stages-of-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/07\/stages-of-achievement\/","title":{"rendered":"Stages of Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column4108_d6ce5f-cc dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">College of Education grad pursues career in dance&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Richy&nbsp;Romero\u2019s made some noteworthy changes over the past year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the First State Ballet Theatre production of Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cSwan Lake\u201d at the Grand Opera House this spring, he danced the role of Von Rothbart, a wicked sorcerer who changes the lovely Odette into a swan, and who can change himself into an owl when it suits his purposes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About a month later, he crossed the stage at the Chase Center on the Riverfront to graduate from Wilmington University with a Bachelor of Science in Education Studies, a change of course from the Elementary Education (K-6) bachelor\u2019s he began here. It\u2019s a change that has enabled him to pursue a career in dance instead of the classroom teaching he\u2019d once envisioned.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dancers are, after all, known for being flexible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI love working with kids,\u201d says Romero. \u201cBut over the past two years I\u2019ve realized that Zoom meetings and online learning were not a part of my passion for education. I had to re-evaluate my studies.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, he was considering his next move in dance, and planning to join his partner where she enrolled in graduate school. \u201cAs a dancer, you send out your resume of things you\u2019ve done, and you audition,\u201d he says.&nbsp;Last fall, when the Denver, Colorado-based modern ballet group&nbsp;Wonderbound&nbsp;invited him to join the company for its 2022-23 season, he leapt at the opportunity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image4108_11e0bf-b7 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image4108_11e0bf-b7\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"441\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_RichyRamero_07-22-1-1024x602-1-750x441.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-16294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_RichyRamero_07-22-1-1024x602-1-750x441.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_RichyRamero_07-22-1-1024x602-1-250x147.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_RichyRamero_07-22-1-1024x602-1-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_RichyRamero_07-22-1-1024x602-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption>Richy Ramero with his friends and family at graduation<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Romero&nbsp;was determined&nbsp;to finish his degree, though he was no longer sure about Elementary Education\u2019s semester of student teaching and the professional exams required for a state teaching license.&nbsp;Dr. James Boyd,&nbsp;a faculty advisor in&nbsp;WilmU\u2019s&nbsp;College of Education and Liberal Arts, helped point him toward the non-licensure bachelor\u2019s in Education Studies, a teaching-adjacent degree.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAcademically, it was an easy step. He had a great GPA, he had credits to spare,\u201d says Dr. Boyd.&nbsp;\u201cHe had talked with me, with considerable angst,&nbsp;about leaving the idea of teaching behind. I said, take the opportunity, follow your dream. You can come back to complete your certification and teach whenever you want.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Romero,&nbsp;who begins training with&nbsp;Wonderbound&nbsp;on August 2,&nbsp;following the dream is a bigger step. As an athletic 13-year-old who joined a hip-hop dance class at a Vineland, New Jersey studio, \u201cdance was a new challenge for me to get better at something,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen, at First State Ballet&nbsp;Theatre, I had a great seven years there.&nbsp;Now it\u2019s taking me across the country.&nbsp;I\u2019m not really sure where life is going to take me, but this is an interesting time.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is a big success story for one of our graduates,\u201d adds Dr. Boyd, \u201cthough not necessarily on the path toward teaching that we would expect. It\u2019s a story about how goals change, how unexpected things come along, and how we meet challenges by being flexible and adapting to the situation.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>College of Education grad pursues career in dance&nbsp;&nbsp; Richy&nbsp;Romero\u2019s made some noteworthy changes over the past year.&nbsp; In the First State Ballet Theatre production of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-4108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","tag-college-of-education-liberal-arts"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"}],"post_tag":[{"value":78,"label":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Blog_FeaturedImage_RichyRamero_07-22-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":78,"name":"College of Education &amp; Liberal Arts","slug":"college-of-education-liberal-arts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":635,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":89,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16297,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions\/16297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}