WEB NEWS RELEASE
Center for Young Children
COLLEGE PARK, MD (March 2009) - On the day the Center for Young Children (CYC) begins taking applications for children, parents start lining up before dawn, waiting in their idling cars in the parking lot to ensure their kids have the best possible chance of entry.
"We tell parents, 'Please don't do that,"; says CYC Director Francine Favretto, with compassion in her voice. "They do it anyway."
And who can blame them? The CYC has spent decades earning a reputation as the place for University of Maryland-affiliated parents to enroll their young children for enlightened, knowledge-based day care and education. So considered one of the finest models of such programs in the country, when the top professional association in the field - the National Association for the Education of Young Children - holds conferences in the vicinity, participants pay visits to the Center to see how it's done.
On April 25, 2009, the CYC will celebrate its 60th anniversary during Maryland Day, with activities beginning on site at 10 a.m. Highlights include a sing-a-long, displays depicting the history of the CYC, remarks by Dean Donna Wiseman, a puppet show, and much more. The Center is also honoring its 60-year legacy by raising funds to create a $500,000 endowment fund that would generate $25,000 each year to support tuition scholarships for children of low income families to attend the CYC (to learn how you can contribute to the CYC Scholarship Fund, contact Assistant Dean for Development Darcelle Wilson: 301.405.6644 or email darcelle@umd.edu).
Housed under the College of Education's Department of Human Development, the Center is, in the nomenclature, a Laboratory School. As a full-time accredited developmental program, it cares for the children of faculty, staff, and students at the University while also observing them, allowing for both enhanced care and advancement of knowledge about child development. Its mission is threefold: to educate and care for children; to be a demonstration school for training undergraduates in teaching and related professions; and to serve as an observation and research facility.
So at CYC, everybody learns: children, teachers, undergraduates, researchers, parents. And everyone wants their children enrolled there.
"As with a teaching hospital, one thinks of a facility like ours as having the most current knowledge," says Favretto. "I think that's one of the attractions. Parents not only want our research and care, but they also want to continue to learn about children themselves."
The CYC has 13 faculty, all with either master's or bachelor's degrees, who educate both the children and the undergraduate students who work with children in the program. Currently 110 children are enrolled in six classes: four full-day classes of 3- and 4-year-olds, one half-day class of 3- and 4-year-olds, and one full-day kindergarten class of 5- and 6-year-olds.
CYC Assistant Director Anne Daniel says it is the strength of the CYC faculty that has enabled it to serve children well. "I think absolutely the thing that has made the program so special is the quality of our people, their commitment to give 100 percent to making their program or their classrooms the very best for the children. Families are so pleased with this program; parent enthusiasm for CYC is at an all-time high. Sometimes they're kind of amazed at what our teachers can do with children."
To learn more about the Center for Young Children, visit their web site at www.education.umd.edu/EDHD/CYC/.
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For more information on the College of Education, visit: www.education.umd.edu
or contact Halima Cherif, Assistant Director for Communications, at: hcherif@umd.edu
