Awards and Grants

Patrick Romero

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 membership meeting in Pasadena at the Annual Conference.

The Irv Kaplan Conference Award was awarded to Jennifer Aragon of Orange County, Cheterra McKnight of Inland Empire, and Diana Thompson of Central California. They attended conference with two days of registration and a cash stipend 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 Diana Dembeck of East Bay and Leticia Martuccio of Orange County. In addition, because of a generous sponsorship from Kohburg, Inc. we were able to award an additional member, Juanita Burns of Central Region. These exceptional members received 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 Liliana Alvarez Hernandez of CSU Northridge, Southern California. She received $1,000 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 what this awardee will add to the conversation.

We are very proud to provide scholarships, awards and grants to directly support members and emerging leaders. Please reach out to your network to help us continue to expand our program. Invite someone to establish a named scholarship, award or grant to honor someone who represents CAAEYC’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 CAAEYC 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 our members 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.