Getting to Know Your International Contacts

Stephanie Olmore

Director of Quality Enhancement Initiatives at NAEYC

I can honestly say that I have definitely enjoyed the blog assignments so far in which we are given the opportunity to get to know professionals within our fields and learn about different organizations and resource that can be used in our future careers.  However, getting to know other professionals has been a great experience so far.  I became discouraged in the beginning because no one had responded to any of my emails, however, the director of NAEYC, Rhian Evans responded and forwarded my email to the appropriate individual.  The individual who I have been communicating with and would like to introduce to everyone is Stephanie Olmore, Director of Quality Enhancement Initiatives at National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  Stephanie has a very extensive background in which she has basically been working in the early childhood field since her college years in which she served as an assistant for a child care program on campus.  She received her Bachelors at the University of Colorado at Boulder in which her major was Sociology.  She also received her Master’s degrees from the University of Colorado at Denver in which her major was Early Childhood Education.  She has worked for many companies throughout the years which include working for the Step by Step Association, Governor of Colorado, University of Colorado at Denver, and now at the NAEYC.  She is very dedicated to the early childhood field and an advocate for the well-being of children all over the world.         

The reason why Rhian Evans thought that this would be the perfect person to communicate with is because Stephanie is responsible for overseeing of all international efforts of NAEYC.  The international efforts of NAEYC have just begun in which the organization is seeking and encouraging other early childhood programs from the world to become accredited through the NAEYC.  The organization is in the process of implementing Global Connections which serves as a resource to support high-quality early care and education for all children all over the world.  The organization believes that the best way to address some of the issues that exist with children and families is with the providing of high quality early care and making sure that every child has the opportunity to receive that type of care.  The countries that have developed a partnership and joined Global Alliances include the following countries:

• Africa
• Asia
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Europe
• North America
• South America

According to NAEYC (2013), “The Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children provides an opportunity for early childhood associations from countries throughout the world to distribute materials and share information about programs and services, so that members of the participating organizations will have access to a greater range of early childhood resources” (para. 2).  This will allow the countries to use the resources and services in order to address issues such as poverty in order to aid people in their countries to provide better lives for their families.

When she shared this information I thought to myself that this just may work.  When it comes to issues of poverty a lot of families are not able to afford high quality child care for their children.  However, if all children are given the opportunity to receive this type of care, regardless of their income level, then there is a possibility that this early education will prepare the children for regular school.  This in return will allow the students to continue to excel and eventually receive good jobs in the future so their families will not have to struggle and live in poverty.  Education is the key to success and if we are going to fight to end poverty, educating children is where we need to start.     

References

NAEYC.  (2013).  Global alliance.  Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance.

 

Sharing Web Resources

As an individual who wants to obtain a job in the early childhood profession, I believe that every child should be given the chance at receiving a quality education as well as given the opportunity to experience things in life that will have a positive impact on them.  This is exactly why I chose the organization, Harlem Children's Zone (www.hcz.org).  The Harlem Children's Zone is a community based organization that focuses on the well-being of the children and families in Harlem, NY by providing them with resources and activities in order to promote positivity in their lives.  One of the main focuses of the organization is to end poverty and to educate the children in order to enrich the environment of Harlem, NY.  The one thing that I found interesting about this origanization and what led me to further researching the website was the agencies, "whatever it takes" attitude.  This is exactly how I feel when it comes to children and being able to provide their families with the resources and services needed for a better life for the child.  The Harlem Children's Zone is basically an organization that provides services to everyone, from the preschooler all the way up to the college student.   

While researching the organization's website I was able to determine that the main issue with families and children that Harlem Children's Zone is focusing on is poverty.  The organization feel that there are too many families living in poverty and something has to be done in order to address the issue.  They feel that something more has to be done than just the programs that only help hundreds of children a year.  Their aim is to help thousands of children a year in whcih they have been able to reach as many as 10,000 children a year by providing services such as the Baby College, preschool programs, health related resources and services such as obesity programs, and asthma initiatives, as well as the Promise Academy which is a successful public charter school.  The services and resources provided has allowed the organization to address the concerns and issues that comes along with poverty stricken parents and given them a better view of life.  The organization has a newsletter in which I have subscribed to but awaiting to receive confirmation for access.  However, I feel that the  website has valuable information that would be very useful to any early childhood professional or any individual looking to find ways to address problems within their own community. 

As far as the topics discussed this week and the information found on the website, I feel that the changes in demographics may cause the proverty numbers to rise in which more and more people will need resources or programs that will help them adapt and take control of their situation.  I feel that this website will provide families and professionals with information on how to address the issue and how to start programs or seek help from other organizations such as this one.  However, I encourage everyone to take a look at their website and read about some of the wonderful things the organization has done for the families in Harlem.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This is my first blog assignment for Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood field, and I am trying to get back in the swing of things.  This has been such a wonderful journey thus far, and I look forward to learning news things and interacting with everyone in this class.  

After reading the instructions for the first blog assignment, I became very excited because we are given the opportunity to network with other early childhood professionals from other countries as well and become very familiar with websites that focus on the early childhood field.  The blog assignment consists of two parts that will be continuously addressed throughout the eight weeks of class.  

The first part of the assignment focuses on establishing contact with two other professionals within the early childhood field that are located in other countries.  The assignments in weeks to come will require me to communicate with the individuals and basically get to know them on a personal and professional note.  I approached the first part of the assignment head on by sending out as many emails that I could to as many people that I could locate from other countries.  Before I sent out the email, I kind of had a feeling that some of the emails would come back due to emails being incorrect.  I was exactly right in which I received a failure notice for about 10 of the emails that I sent out.  The more the emails failed the more people I found to send additional emails.  After a couple of days of no response, I almost gave up and wanted to just do the alternative assignment.  However, I was contacted by Rhian Evan Allvin, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), in which she informed me that she had received my email and was going to forward it to the appropriate individual.  She stated that she knew the perfect person that could help me which was Stephanie Olmore who was head of their International Initiative Department.  I was so excited that someone had taken out the time to reply to my message.  I look forward to hearing from Ms. Olmore in hopes that she will be able to share with me her views on the early childhood field.   

The second part of the blog assignment allows me to become familiar with a resource that can be used by early childhood professionals in which we have to select a early childhood organization's website and research it for the next couple of weeks to determine how the organization supports the early childhood field.  After going through the provided list of resources I decided to select the Harlem Children's Zone (www.hcz.org).  The reason why I chose this website is because I have often heard stories about the educational opportunities and services that are offered to children in Harlem.  I wanted to learn more about the services as well as explore the website to learn as much about the community-based organization.

I am very excited about this assignment and the only advice I can give about this assignment is try to contact as many people as possible.  The more people that are contacted the better the chance we may have at contacting someone from another country.  I wish everyone the best of luck with the assignment and look forward to reading your posts in the future.