Practical Application in the Early Childhood Field

Week 4: Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: National & Federal Level           

              As we continue on with our capstone project and researching our challenge as well as the many organizations that coincide with our ideas I have found so many career paths that I was unaware about. Currently, I have been looking into The National SEED Project, which is an organization that is seeking educational equity and diversity in schools, workplaces, and communities. I would love to become a SEED Leader and peer-lead a residential workshop to share concepts and strategies to facilitate social change and a revision of our education programs. What I find to be extremely beneficial is that SEED encourages experienced leaders to mentor new ones on how to do this "deeply personal group work" in local seminars back in their own schools, workplaces, and communities. This process is designed to be supportive, respectful, challenging, interesting, growth inducing, and often transformative (The National Seed Project). There are many steps that come with applying to become a New Leader and can take up to a year for completion. The candidate is required to design, coordinate and facilitate a year-long, monthly SEED seminar in their school with 15-25 colleagues during at least one school year. You are also expected to go to a retreat where you will also partner with many other New Leader candidates to share your own experiences and to learn more about the program. While this isn’t a typical job application, I would love to get involved with this organization as I believe a multicultural and anti-bias education is key to our future.

            Teach For America also has many job openings in my surrounding area as well as areas that I would be willing to relocate to. Teach For America helps to ensure equity within the classroom and have access to many opportunities that young children can learn from. The job opportunity I found most appealing is a Vice President of Regional Support and Engagement, which allows me to work with national teams and, to collaborate effectively to set a vision for the TFA. I can build relationships and help grow Teach For America’s mission. While this job is a reach, it would be an amazing position to have. I must work for TFA full time prior to applying, 9+ years in management and leadership background, and well versed in Teach For America’s mission and foundations. 

Administration for Children & Families offers The Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) that brings together the best of Early Head Start and child care through layering of funding to provide comprehensive and continuous services to low-income infants, toddlers, and their families (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). While I am unable to view any job openings within this sector, I have viewed their brochures, and explored other webinars that are associated with this program. All students deserve the right to a high-quality early childhood education. Without government funding and successful partnerships with many other organizations these programs will not succeed. 

Each of these organizations fuel my passion for the early childhood field and I can only hope to make such strides in my career as these organizations have made in many families and students lives.

Reference:

The National Seed Project. (n.d.). New Leaders Week. Retrieved from https://nationalseedproject.org/be-a-part

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2017, July 6). Early Head Start - Child Care Partnerships. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/early-learning/ehs-cc-partnerships

Week 2: Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Three communities of practices that appeal to me are Head Start Programs, Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI), and working on a school board. I believe each of these organizations can support a child and their family in the best ways possible.

Head Start would allow me to offer a variety of services to many different family members and even offer home-based services. Early Head Start programs would also allow me to speak with pregnant woman and work with infants and toddlers. As we all know, early education begins when a child enters the world. Teaching parents how to support their youngsters can prepare their child for school and beyond. Head Start in Hempstead, NY has a lead teach position open where I would be under the direction and supervision of the Site Supervisor, this job would allow me to be in a classroom and create lesson plans to support the child in all their domains. There job requirements are a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education with NYS certification or a CDA (Children Development Associate Credential) with three years in a classroom. While this is not my dream job, by getting my foot in the door with Head Start can only benefit my future and also learn how the whole organization works from the ground up.

Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI) can provide an array of early intervention services to support infants and toddlers with disabilities. Early intervention programs must begin before the child hits the age of three to be eligible. Each of these services is also provided at no cost to the families, which is imperative when working with lower income families. A job in the Rockland area is looking for an Assistant Vice President of Developmental Disabilities where I can contribute to the development of the annual budget, promote orientation programs, interview applicants, and oversee the functioning and coordination of all teams. This job would be a dream, while I know I still need some experience in the administration field, as an assistant I feel that I can learn a lot from my superiors. The job requirements are to have a master’s degree, three years of direct experience in the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) field, working with students and other adults with mental illnesses and experience in a leadership role.

Lastly, I have always enjoyed going to school board meetings, especially when ran correctly, and groups come to an agreement. Becoming a school board member is a huge responsibility. We are overseeing the education of our community’s youth. While many tough challenges may come up, it is how we face them and solve our community problems that can help these young students succeed in the future. In order to run for school board member there a few requirements, being a US citizen, 18 years old, qualified voters in the school district and able to read and write. While these seem like simple requirements there are many that go into thought when running for school board. Campaigning is huge and you must reach out to your community and share why you believe you should be on the school board. There are many characteristics that successful school board members must have to be effective during meetings. Being an effective communicator, being an active participant in the community, have leadership qualities, as well as being a team player are all attributes one must have.

Each of these positions fuel my passion with helping in the early childhood field. While I love being in a classroom and being hands on, I feel that I can support more families and students for fighting for what is right.