Leadership, Innovation and Determination: Two UMass Boston Early Childhood Fellows Share Their Stories

An innovative fellowship launched by UMass Boston’s Institute for Early Educator Leadership and Innovation provides full scholarships for early educators. Funding by the city of Boston (with American Rescue Plan Act dollars) will cover tuition and expenses for 52 fellows earning bachelor’s degrees, in exchange for a promise to work in the city for three years.

When the fellowship was announced, Marcelo Juica, Ph.D., director of Programs of the Early Ed Leadership Institute and co-director of the Early Childhood Fellowship, said it would “create a powerful pipeline of trained educators to grow the early childhood education workforce in the city.”

“The fellowship tackles many of the obstacles faced by early educators seeking their bachelor’s degree,” said Anne Douglass, Ph.D., founder and executive director of the Early Ed Leadership Institute and a professor of early education at UMass Boston.

The initiative fits squarely into Boston’s overall early education strategy. “The greatest investment we can make in our future is to support and center our young people,” said Mayor Michelle Wu last summer when announcing a $20 million investment to expand universal pre-K.

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Debra Johnston-Malden, M.S., director of the Early Childhood Fellowship program, added that it would “increase the professionalization of the early education workforce in the city of Boston and have a positive, multigenerational impact on the lives of children and their families.”

Early Learning Nation magazine spoke to two fellows who reflect UMass Boston’s commitment to welcoming educators from populations that have historically faced barriers to higher education. (Two-thirds of UMass Boston’s early education graduates are BIPOC women.)

Article created by Mark Swartz