Audra Dunkin is in her first year as a Para Professional at Rye High School, and couldn’t be happier.
Dunkin laughs, “I went to school here, graduated from Rye High School, and couldn’t wait to get away from here. I hated the snow, wanted to be somewhere warmer, just wanted to be gone. I was gone for ten years and came home to find hap piness.”
Dunkin’s love for her job shines through with every sentence that she says about it. She is excited by the students she gets to work with, and by getting to know so many different people. Dunkin shared, “I want to go to work! It is not always an easy job but I enjoy my work. I didn’t really think I would be good at it but my daughter's preschool teacher, Karen Pavich, encouraged me to try it. I came home from work that first day and told husband Forrest, ‘I want to do this!’”
Since that first day, Dunkin has had a lot of people encourage her in her work. She started with District 70 as a substitute paraprofessional. Once she decided that was what she really wanted to do, she worked hard to let others know she was serious about her job by taking every sub day she could get. She subbed at all the District 70 mountain schools and has made many friends there who inspired her to return to college last fall. With special encouragement from friend and coworker, Paula Hoffman, she is currently enrolled in college and working towards becoming a teacher.
Dunkin entered the military right out of high school, proudly serving the US Marine Corps in Texas and California with a deployment to Iraq. When she returned to the Greenhorn Valley, nearly ten years later, she was surprised to find out that the young man from across the street had been quietly asking her mother about her all while she was gone. It didn’t take long for the two, who had been friends since they were about 15 years old, to reconnect and Audra became Mrs. Forrest Dunkin.
The Dunkin family recently became new homeowners and have a busy, bustling household. Forrest works at the hemp farm in Colorado City, Audra has her job and is taking three accelerated college classes. Jointly, they juggle parenting duties for Rye High School senior Kimie, fourteen-year-old Michael, and nine-year-old Lucie. Their new home has a large shop where Audra also enjoys wood crafting.