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
Learn to use the simple but powerful features of EndNote®, a citation management tool. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography.
Virtual EventLearn to use Zotero®, a citation manager that can help you store and organize citations you find during your research. Zotero can generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual EventOur GSAW Research Symposium begins with lunch and a Poster Presentation Competition. Faculty, staff, and graduate students are welcome to attend and review the exceptional research from UTSA's best and brightest.
Student Union Ballrooms 1 & 2, Main CampusHear from UTSA doctoral candidate in environmental science, Andre Felton, as he discusses best practices to discuss scholarly research in non-academic settings. Our 2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) winners will also share their winning presentations.
Student Union Ballrooms 1 & 2, Main CampusJoin this fun event if you want resume and interview resources, a job or internship, a snow cone from Kona Ice and to socialize.
Sombrilla PlazaIn partnership with San Antonio Metro Health, join us for a special lecture series during Public Health week! An esteemed panel will discuss the job market’s impact on public health departments in Texas municipalities.
Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02,) Main CampusThe Task Force for the Shaping the Future of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber, Computing, and Data Science at UTSA initiative will hold a virtual Campus Forum to discuss their findings in Phase I (data gathering). UTSA faculty, staff and students will have an opportunity to ask questions and share ideas before the Task Force moves into Phase II.
Virtual Event