Terri Radovich

Terri was born in Sonora, CA. She was second generation to be born in Tuolumne County on both her dad and mom’s side. She has two younger brothers, two nieces, three nephews, five great nieces and one great nephew. She attended a one room school, Wards Ferry Elementary, from first through seventh grade. She graduated from Curtis Creek in 1969 and went to Sonora Union High School where she graduated in January of 1973. She earned the Bank of America Business Award her graduating year. Growing up, she always wanted to be a school teacher and use to torture her brothers into playing school. While in high school she had great typing and secretarial skills and teachers pushed her in the direction of secretarial, which she pursued. She went to work for the Tuolumne County Court Reporter in January of 1973. She worked there for two years also filling in for the Superior Court Judge as secretary when his secretary became ill. She then went to work for a local Attorney and worked for him for eight years. He closed his business and she went to work as a Legal Secretary for the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office. She got married and quit work to be a housewife. That was not fulfilling enough and she opened her own business typing California State Parole Hearings for eight years with a contract through the State of California. When the contract was up, she went to work to fill in for a school secretary that was ill at Columbia Elementary and ended up being hired as an aide and part-time secretary. Again, her great secretarial skills pulled her into the office full time and away from the kids. That again was not satisfying and she joined AmeriCorp to be able to go back to college and pursue teaching. She was a tutor and aide for Soulsbyville and Jamestown Elementary School. Jamestown hired her as an aide and she worked there for ten years. At that time, she also attended full-time college and took 24 units of Child Development, two teaching classes and liberal studies earning 94 college units at Columbia and Modesto Junior College. She also has attended every workshop and class she could for working with developmentally disabled children. She has worked with several autistic children, bi-polar, and other special needs children. While working at Jamestown she again ended up doing more secretarial than teaching and saw an ad in the newspaper for a teaching job at Safari Learning Academy. She immediately contacted us, and was hired making her dream of teaching come true. She is currently teaching a K-1 class at Safari as well as being the Administrative Secretary to the Director of Safari and founder of Zoo-phonics®, Inc. She lives in a house on the property that is owned by her parents and helps take care of her mom who is 82, but still going strong. Her dad died in 2008 and she still misses him desperately.