By Priscilla Galarza
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
On Tuesday Sept. 24, one of two significant federal grants was awarded to the early childhood studies center here.
Eligible students will benefit from the $313,469 grant, which has been received annually for four years from the U.S. Education Department, totaling more than $1 million.
The grant will benefit students by expanding the number of students and their children who can enter the program and keeping child care subsidized.
This is the fourth time it has been awarded to the center.
This grant invests in the futures of three beneficiaries: the community, the child and the parents.
Society gains a new productive member who contributes their expertise and education to better a community.
Parents receive the peace of mind that comes with good quality child care and the opportunity to achieve a higher education without limits.
The grant enhances children’s lives because of their parents’ productivity and education during early development; however, the early childhood studies center is not like any other daycare.
They not only care for students’ children, but the institution actually funds diapers and formula.
Nursing freshman Chloe Gonzales, 19, is an example of students who uses the center.
She drops off her 10-month-old daughter, Mila, at 7:45 a.m.
Gonzales graduated from Edison High School in 2012 and faces the challenges of keeping her daughter healthy and happy while pursuing a career and future.
She is enrolled in the nursing program.
Child care is one of the most expensive areas of raising a child.
Gonzales said not only is her child being cared for, but she is actually learning more. “She is crawling more and more, and she didn’t do that before.”
Gonzales displayed confidence in the facility and its ability to care for the most precious part of her life.
“I trust them,” she said. “With no one to watch her while I go to class, it is convenient to be in the same vicinity as Mila.”
This grant helps Gonzales everyday and these awards mean the early childhood studies center now has the ability to help 16 more students this semester and 10 next summer.