Director at Crystal Falls

Jacque Unzicker

I hail from the North and am an avid Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears fan! I believe in the importance of educating children in a fun and engaging way and love having the opportunity to encourage children to be life-long learners. As a social worker I have a core passion for helping children learn problem-solving skills supporting their social-emotional development.

My educational pursuits show my own personal love for learning! My undergraduate degree is in psychology with a minor in criminal justice from Bethel College where I had the opportunity to play collegiate basketball and soccer. After college, I lived in Romania for a year, working in the orphanages and teaching English to high school students. I returned to the states and obtained my Master’s degree in social work at the University of Illinois with a focus on child welfare. After graduate school, my first job was working as an adoption social worker. I helped families adopt domestically and internationally. I then switched my career path to the field of education, working five years as a school social worker in a large urban elementary school. I ran crisis management, social emotional groups, and taught social emotional learning standards in classrooms ranging from Pre-K to 8th grade. In my role as a school social worker, I worked closely with the administrative leadership staff at my school and decided to pursue a Masters in Educational Leadership. This degree and my passion for early childhood education led me to Abacus School of Austin.

As director, I want to share my love for learning with all my young Abacus friends. I believe in the importance of nurturing the home-school connection in every child’s life. Above all else, I want the children at Abacus to know that they are special, they have a voice and that they are worthy of love and belonging.