Hello Cooper Family!

My name is Helga Bogardus, your Music Enhancement Teacher.  This is my second year at Cooper Academy!  I love teaching at Cooper because of the loving students and the family atmosphere!   

I am originally from New York.  I have one brother who still lives there.  My mother was from Germany and my father was from Hungary but they met here in the United States.  That makes me a first generation American!  This past summer my whole family traveled to my parents´ homelands to see where they lived as children!  That trip checked a box on my bucket list!   

When I was in High School, I was in Chorus and the highlight each year was the annual musical.  I loved it so much that I decided to go to college for music.  If I wasn´t a music teacher I would have been a math teacher.  Either way, I wanted to be a teacher. 

I moved to North Carolina in 1996. I worked as a Director of Music Ministry for over 20 years in addition to part time teaching music in a private school.  I am thankful to be working in public education where I can grow even more as a professional music teacher.

I have been married to my husband, Bob, for 34 years! We have 4 children. The oldest, ELizabeth, is a Chemistry Teacher and her husband is a Chemical Engineer.  Sarah is our second daughter and she is a middle/high school Vocal Music Teacher and her husband is a middle school band director.  Our youngest daughter, Abigail, works at the School of Theatre, Dance and Music at UNC Greensboro.  Abigailś husband is a pianist.   My son, Chris, is a Senior in high school plays tuba and sousaphone in the band.  He is also active in the FIRST Robotics club at his school.  He hopes to pursue mechanatronic engineering in college.  We have a dog named ¨Dolce" which is the music word for sweet and she really is very sweet.  My happy place is sitting in the recliner with Dolce on my lap!  As you can see, my family revolves around music and education! 

My greatest joy is sharing my passion for all things music, singing, playing instruments and dancing, with the students at Cooper Academy!