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| Patrick Romero |
Awards & Grants
We are very proud to provide scholarships, awards and grants to directly support members and emerging leaders. We had a very talented and competitive group of applicants this year. I hope many of you joined us in congratulating this year’s recipients during Friday’s General Membership meeting in Ontario at the Annual Conference.
The Irv Kaplan Conference Award was awarded to Karena Tuel of Central California AEYC, Sonya Valiente McEntee of Sonoma County AEYC and Holly Ponciano of California Cascade AEYC. This award provided a two-day conference registration and cash stipend ($300 value) thanks to the generous donation of Irv Kaplan’s sister, Francene Kaplan, PhD, and others. Irv Kaplan used to return from conference energized with “gems” to bring back to the center where he taught young children and the community college where he taught educators studying early childhood education. He said, “The conference is so important! I don’t understand why more people won’t go.” We are honored to support the Kaplan family’s wish to remove financial barriers for members who may not otherwise attend conference.
The CAEYC Annual Conference Award was awarded to Hattie Barnett of Southern California AEYC, Esther Chavez of Kern AEYC, Llaly Hernandez of Southern California AEYC, Gladys Villanueva of Central California AEYC and Jami White of Redwood Empire AEYC. In addition, because of a generous sponsorship from DCI Insurance we were able to award two additional members - Deidre Jones of Los Angeles AEYC and Twyla Robinson of San Diego AEYC. We were excited to have the capacity to offer these seven exceptional members a full three-day registration to attend conference and encourage their development as emerging leaders in our field.
CAEYC’s Presidents Education Award was awarded to Alicia McFarland of Ventura County AEYC. Alicia received $1,000 cash stipend for books, tuition or general costs to encourage the pursuit of a graduate education degree or credential study in early childhood education or child development. Our field needs passionate voices and we can’t wait to see how Alicia will add to the conversation.
Finally, please reach out to your network to help us continue to expand our scholarships, awards and grants program. Invite someone to establish a named scholarship, award or grant to honor someone that represents CAEYC’s mission to promote excellence in early childhood education. They can be honorary or memorial tributes. A family could honor the memory of a loved one by sponsoring a conference registration. A family could celebrate a birth by offering a scholarship or grant for a CAEYC membership in the name of the new family member. It doesn’t have to be a person; maybe you, or a family member, work for a company that would like to be recognized as a champion for early educators. Your gifts will help them continue their development as professionals and improve the lives of the children and families they work with. Contact us at info@caeyc.org to learn the details.