Meet a Roadrunner: Earlene Gonzales is a tireless advocate for early childhood education
(Mar. 4, 2015) -- Meet Earlene Gonzales. As director of the UTSA Child Development Center (CDC), she ensures that in every situation, the child’s needs come first.
Gonzales has more than 20 years of experience leading accredited child development centers. Her life goal is to improve the care and education of preschool-age children and she advocates for early childhood education in her volunteer role as president of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children.
Her eyes light up when she’s asked about the best part of her job. She shares the story of a four-year-old child with severe disabilities who wasn’t speaking and had other developmental delays when the child started at the CDC. In just a few days, the child was playing outside and interacting with the other children.
"Those are the kinds of things that you just can’t measure," she said. "It's so rewarding to see the good we can do for one child each day. Put all those days together and eventually there’s an adult that we’ve helped succeed."
One could argue that UTSA’s recruitment process begins with infants.
I'm grateful that UTSA recognizes that a quality childcare education program is a good recruitment and retention tool for its students and employees," stated Gonzales. "We focus on fun and the joy of learning so that the children develop a love of learning and want to go to college."
Research shows that children who get even one year of a high quality early education by age three will have increased chances of going to college and earning more money.
The CDC provides exceptional childcare services for UTSA students, staff and faculty. Accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the top accreditor in this field, its programs are designed to enhance children’s emotional, social, creative, physical, language and cognition development through creativity and play-based education. Roughly 70 percent of the children the CDC serves are those of UTSA students.
--------------------------------
Do you know someone connected with UTSA who is achieving great things? Email us at social@utsa.edu, and we will consider your submission for an upcoming installment of Meet a Roadrunner.
Read the stories of other UTSA students, faculty, staff and alumni on the Meet a Roadrunner website.
Connect online with UTSA on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Events
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.