“Burlington has changed a lot since 1976, but with the help of local agencies and UVM’s early childhood program we’ve been able to adapt to the changing needs of our children and families,” says Danielczyk, director of Trinity Children’s Center (TCC) for more than 25 years. "This is a unique place because we integrate children with special needs with children from refugee families, homeless children, and children of UVM faculty and staff. It's a pretty special place."

The growing diversity of TCC, a non-profit early childhood facility located on UVM’s Trinity Campus, has created an ideal learning lab for students in UVM’s Early Childhood Special Education Program. By the time students graduate they will have interacted with professionals from a wide range of local agenices including Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS), Head Start, and the Burlington School District’s Essential Early Education Program. Other local agencies that collaborate with TCC include the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program; Association for Africans Living in Vermont; Visiting Nurses Association; Easter Seals; and the Department of Children and Families/State Services.

The 37-year relationship between Trinity and the Burlington’s Essential Early Education Program, located in the same building, is especially beneficial because it allows students to observe how the school district identifies children with significant developmental challenges and administers family-centered early childhood special education services. TCC has 15 children on individualized education programs (IEPs) who are integrated into a diverse overall student population of 70 children, including at least three children with special needs in each classroom.

Grant to pay tuition of seniors in Early Childhood Special Education Program

Jennifer Hurley, assistant professor of education and program coordinator for the Early Shildhood Special Education Program, recently landed a $1.25 million grant from Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs that will be used to pay for the tuition for seniors in the program who are interning at TCC. Susan Ryan, director of the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion, was also an author on the grant.

“There’s no way we would have gotten this grant without the strong relationship we have with Trinity Children’s Center and the agencies they work with,” says Hurley, adding that TCC earned the rare National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation and was awarded the highest possible five-star rating by the State of Vermont. “It’s an ideal setting to prepare scholars to work with all of Vermont’s children, including children with disabilities experiencing the additional challenges of being English language learners, and experiencing poverty or homelessness. Many of the teachers at TCC are graduates of the program and come in well prepared.”

In her application, Hurley outlined plans for preparing students to meet the needs of children with disabilities and the shockingly high number of homeless children. “Families with young children are one of the most rapidly increasing groups with homelessness nationwide,” Hurley says. “Nearly one-quarter of all homeless people are under the age of six, so there's a real need for intentional collaboration between agencies that provide services for families experiencing homelessness, including Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Ed agencies. Scholars in teacher preparation programs must be made aware of the need for research-based methods for serving homeless families and children with disabilities and have pre-service experiences in family shelters.”

Rita Markley, executive director of COTS, the largest organization for the homeless in Vermont, explains in her letter of support for the grant application that the number of Vermont children under the age of five living in emergency shelters and overflow motels has tripled since 2008.

“We have tried to cobble together educational and enrichment programs but have no real expertise in this field,” writes Markley, who is working with Hurley to plan a practicum experience that will benefit UVM students and children with disabilities in area shelters. “There is a dire need in our community for early childhood educators who have appropriate training and preparation to work with families and children who are homeless. We are thrilled to be forming a partnership with the Early Childhood Special Education Program at UVM.”

Paying back loans by helping children in need

Over the last decade the demand for early childhood special education teachers has increased from about 13,000 to more than 27,000, while the number of graduates in such programs remains inadequate to satisfy the needs of the approximately 299,848 infants and toddlers receiving early intervention services, according to the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center. In an effort to bridge this gap, students receiving free tuition from the grant are required to work as an early childhood special educator for one year for every semester of tuition they receive. Students receiving one year of tuition, for example, could satisfy their service obligation to the federal government by working for two years as an early childhood special educator anywhere in the country.

Students are also required to complete the UVM course “Problems in Education,” which includes 40 hours of research on the Young Children with Special Needs Project. Students must also complete 40 hours of practicum experience at COTS by providing support at one of four family shelters in Burlington on a regular basis to play and engage in activities with young children living in the shelters.

“You can read all about teaching skills like pro-social conflict resolution and emotionally supportive conflict resolution, but until you apply it in the classroom it’s hard to see how it works in practice,” says Kate Evans, a 2012 graduate of the UVM Honors College and one of eight UVM alumni working at TCC. “By working here as an undergraduate I got a good feel for the day-to-day routine of being a teacher. It made the transition to working as a fulltime teacher much easier after graduation. I would have been well prepared for wherever I got a job.”

For information about providing scholarship support for students in the College of Education and Social Services, contact Trish Shabbaz, (802) 656-3910, trish.shabazz@uvm.edu.

"We have learned that preparing schools for 21st century learning is less about designing engaging activities for students and more about unleashing the learning potential of students and the technologies with which they are familiar. The infusion of technology in schools is merely an extension of the extraordinary expansion of technology available to students in their lives. Their spontaneous use of technologies in their out-of-school lives reflects, to a remarkable degree, young adolescents' applications of 21st-century skills in pursuit of personal efficacy. One of our I-Leap teachers said it best: "The shift isn't in the students. The shift is in the teachers. We don't have to convince the students that this is the way to learn."

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 “As an undergraduate I was certainly in the minority there, “ she said, speaking of the conference participants in her poster session, most of whom, she explained were Master’s and Doctoral students.  A look at the conference program for her poster session includes among the presenters several faculty members as well. 

“I was told continuously how amazing and professional my poster was, and how professionally I delivered a synopsis of my research in conjunction with my professional attire,” she said confidently.  Chelsea carried out her research study into IPV and RJ for her senior thesis, completed under the careful and expert guidance of her advisor, Professor Holly Lynn-Busier.   

Chelsea explained that since her advisor was not able to attend the conference because of her teaching commitments, “numerous people commented on how great it was that as an undergraduate I had carried out what they identified as ‘rigorous’ research and that I was confident to come to the conference and present my study on my own.”  This was in contrast to most of the 15 or so other undergrads at the conference that came with their advisors in tow to help explain what they had done.   

As for her research, Chelsea said that while “both intimate partner violence and restorative justice approaches have existed for centuries worldwide,” what set her study at the cutting edge was “the use of restorative justice within cases of intimate partner violence.” She continued, “over the past decade this topic has become a hot button issue, perhaps most notably in Vermont, with its leadership in both domestic violence advocacy and restorative justice approaches, making the University of Vermont and CESS the ideal research site for such exploration.” 

Again, speaking of her conference experience, she said, “I think it was a real reflection of the quality of research that the College of Education and Social Services prepares us as students to carry out and professionally present, in conjunction,” she continued, “with the amazing support that our advisors provide us with, signally out for special praise, her advisor, Professor Holly Lynn-Busier.   

She added that “being a CESS student provides you with the people skills necessary to carry out concrete and credible qualitative and quantitative research and the creative mindset to really get in there and analyze the data from multiple perspectives.”  And in an tribute to her program, she made it clear that “CESS prepares you to be a ‘relatable professional,’ if you will, in that you are taught to know and take value in what it means to carry yourself like a professional while also being welcoming and open-minded.” 

As to her plans after graduation, Chelsea said that she was moving to Florida, where she hopes to pursue a career in social work.  After gaining a couple of years experience, she said she would most likely attend graduate school to obtain my M.S. W.  And while her plans after that were up in the air, she was “excited to get out there, gain experience, and leave all my options open so I do not miss out on any of them!” 

The Governor’s Institute on Asian Cultures (GIAC) is a unique two-year program that provides Vermont teenagers to learn about Asia on campus at UVM in the first summer, and to travel to China in the second summer. During the two years, students learn about many aspects of Asian culture, including history, art, politics and more by experts on Asian culture.  The program also aims to instill in the students an appreciation about learning a foreign culture in a respectful and meaningful way, essentially to be travelers and not tourists.

Personal care was a big topic during the discussion. Pack light, wear sunscreen, and carry toilet paper were a few of the suggestions that the students shared. One student from the overseas program, Morgan, recalls how important it was to drink water during the overseas program, which takes place in China during the first two weeks in July. Since the program started in 1997, one of the program director, Jocelyn Fletcher Scheuch, stated that the temperatures at the Great Wall ranged from 90 degrees to 102 degrees.

Another topic was how to prepare for the food. GIAC program director showed a picture of one of the GIAC students biting into a cooked cricket while in China. Students agreed that bringing small snacks from hope, like packets of crackers and granola bars, helped them to feel better at the end of a day of adventurous eating. “It was amazing to think of how a spoonful of peanut butter and a packet of crackers would make me feel better two days into the trip.”

The GIAC staff and directors helped direct the conversation, but mainly let the students ask and respond the question. The director of the GIAC program, Brian Nelligan, commented that it was important for the next cohort of students traveling to China to hear advice from their peers. In the Lounge, it was evident that the next cohort of students were listening to every word and jotting down notes. By the end of the reunion, the room was still full of smiles and energy and thoughts about traveling to China.