Taking The First Steps

23

Author: Lizeth Castillo

Next to Collins House and across the way from the President’s House is a nearly hidden preschool that serves as both an educational outlet for the children of Oxy’s faculty and as a doorway for Oxy students looking to get in touch with their inner child.

In September 1993, the Occidental Child Development Center was opened on the Oxy campus and has continued to flourish since the day of its inception.

Director of the Child Development Center Tamara Woolery relates how ex-President John Slaughter, Vice President Carl Vance, five professors and two administrators worked to open the preschool as a means of providing the children of faculty and staff with the opportunity to prepare for kindergarten, while keeping the children in a trusted environment. “[They] wanted to create a safe, happy, educational facility where children of professors, staff and administrators who were too young to attend elementary school could thrive,” Woolery said. “When you don’t have to worry about your children, you can be more productive.”

The preschool’s outstanding track record for high achievement has contributed to its growing popularity. “We have an 85 percent rate of children who graduate from the Center excelling in school,” Woolery said. “A number of children have skipped kindergarten and gone to first grade. Others have been put into the ‘gifted/high achieving’ status. Public and private schools are happy to get children from the Occidental College Child Development Center, because they are socially, academically and emotionally ready for the elementary experience.”

Interest in enrollment into the Center has considerably increased since its opening. Children of the faculty, staff and administrators hold first priority for acceptance; however, children of community members are also encouraged to enroll.

The Center has become so sought out by faculty and community members that yearly there is an extensive waiting list of about 40-50 children for enrollment, but the Center is only licensed to hold 42 children. “Every year the list gets longer,” Woolery said. “We graduate about 17 children a year (cap and gown). Children that get into the Center have usually been on the list since they were born or a few months later. We have gotten calls from the hospital after a child was born to put him/her on the waiting list.”

Students range anywhere from two to five years of age and are separated into different classes depending on their age. The Hungry Caterpillars, one class of students aged two to three years, generally have a class size of about 10 children. The Busy Bees are three to four years and have a maximum class size of about 18 students. The oldest class of students, The Terrific Tigers, are anywhere from four to five years old and have a maximum class of 15 children each year.

Despite being located on campus, the Center is not funded by the College. Although Oxy provides the building with daily facility maintenance, liability insurance, exterior maintenance and utilities, the tuition gathered from the faculty and community members pays all six teachers-and the director of the Center-student teacher salaries, the cost of daily operation, supplies and any equipment used.

Tuition costs vary depending on whether or not a child is potty-trained and the amount of days a week the child will be attending preschool: five full days (potty trained) is $675 monthly, three full days or five half-days (potty-trained) is $425 monthly, five full days non-potty trained is $775 monthly and three full days or five half-days non-potty trained is $475 monthly. These prices include breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.

Every year, the Center accepts approximately 10 Hungry Caterpillars and six Busy Bees into the program, yet has still run into financial hardships since its opening and could benefit from a bigger location space. The middle of a college campus is not the most orthodox location for a preschool, yet being stationed in a community-based campus like Oxy has had widespread benefits for both the Center and for Oxy students.

“I think having the Child Development Center on campus makes childcare more convenient for a lot of the Oxy professors and staff members,” Katlyn Grossnickle (sophomore), who works at the Center, said. “Also, it’s a way to keep Oxy involved in the community because a good portion of the kids simply live in the surrounding community and don’t have family ties to Oxy.”

For the faculty and staff that use the Center, having their children so close to where they work definitely provides peace of mind, and the Center’s acclaimed success provides children with an education boost. “Parents who work here are comfortable knowing their children are near,” Woolery said. “Children get the advantage of the Oxy atmosphere . . . a home away from home.”

Oxy students who work or volunteer there also reap the benefits from working with young children. “The faculty members have recommended great students to work here. They seem to enjoy seeing their students at the Center,” Woolery said.

Grossnickle first started working for the Child Development Center after being recommended by one of her professors whose child attended the preschool there. “As a first-year, one of my professors had a son who went to the Child Development Center and I heard her talking about it at the end of a class,” Grossnickle said. “She put me in touch with the director and I started working there during the spring semester of [that year].” Students on work study can work at the Center up to 15 hours a week and others are always welcome to volunteer, regardless of the student’s major. “Oxy students are here all year,” Woolery said. “I would like more student involvement. We usually have more student teacher assistants than we have had the past couple of years.”

Student workers assist teachers in the classroom and play games, paint and dance, read books to the children, tell the children stories, help decorate classrooms, help with breakfast and lunch, put the kids to sleep at naptime and generally engage the students with fun activities. “I think the staff there is very competent, but student workers are always appreciated. It helps to have more eyes paying attention and more students to play with the children,” Grossnickle said.

The Child Development Center also provides Oxy students the opportunity to sample alternate career routes. “Work study students get an on-campus job which is stimulating and fun,” Woolery said. “If they are planning to go into psychology, social science, education, art or music, this is great hands-on learning.”

The children at the preschool also enjoy the company of the Oxy students. “The children love to have the college students here. They remember their names and look forward to them coming,” Woolery added.

Children at the Child Development Center have the benefit of being exposed to college campus environment. Working at the Child Development Center becomes such an interactive and intimate job on campus that many of the Student Workers are offered babysitting positions outside the campus. “I love my job and enjoy doing it because it doesn’t feel like work to me,” Grossnickle said. “It feels like I take a break a couple days a week and hang out with some really good kids and really fun co-workers.”

The community surrounding Oxy also gets involved in the Child Development Center, as their location stimulates interest in the institution. “The community families are from as far as Santa Monica,” Woolery said. “Community families are so happy to be a part of the Oxy family; they are perfectly willing to get involved in everything available. They basically love the idea of Oxy.”

The Child Development Center is currently open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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