From Head Start Student to Credentialed Staff Member

posted 8/22/24 -- Yaraydaliz “Miss Liz” Medina’s life and career have been intertwined with Head Start.

Miss Liz is beginning her third year as an Early Childhood Service Worker at Hopkins-Locke Head Start with her freshly completed Child Development Associate credential. Before joining the staff, she was a Head Start parent and, a few more years ago, a student at Hopkins Locke.

The CDA is considered the foundational credential for the Early Childhood Education profession. For Miss Liz, the CDA coursework challenged her time management skills as a single mother of four young children. She already put what she learned to work in her home and looks forward to using it in the Head Start center.

“It makes me understand more how to structure things and how little minds work,” she said, adding that she is grateful for the support of her colleagues at Hopkins Locke. “The teachers were the ones who really pushed for me to do this.”

Miss Liz is one of more than two dozen staff members to earn their CDA in the past year.

Head Start is still enrolling for fall classes. Start your child’s application at www.lccaaforms.net. If you have begun an application, please contact staff to complete it.