Mara
Tieken (2001-2002). B.A.
Dartmouth College in Psychology. Currently a public school
teacher in Vanleer, Tennessee, a small, rural town in middle
Tennessee.
Exit Evaluation Reflections: I try to catalog the
knowledge I gained from this year. I can easily name several
things I learned: The entire classroom experience can be
educational…Learning is a process…Understanding
a child’s motivation is essential to his or her learning…Patience
is a state of being…A dedicated adult can change the
life of a child. I see how important teachers are to the
children of Calvin Hill and I know that I have chosen a
truly important profession. I want my classroom to be like
Calvin Hill. I want it to have the beauty of its space,
the curiosity and passion of its students, the captivation
of its curriculum, and the spirit of its staff. I have learned
a great deal, and I know this Fellowship will serve me well
in my own classroom. Never again will I have the opportunity
to be surrounded by such dedicated, talented teachers, and
their support, encouragement, and example have provided
me with the most thorough training I could ever hope for.
Six-Month Post-Fellowship Reflections: I have had
an experience few other teachers are lucky enough to have—a
more complete understanding of child development. And this
knowledge gives me a highly useful, although, unfortunately
rare perspective. Rather than understanding my children
for a moment in time, a year in their life, I have the value
of a linear perspective—I know where they begin, what
development should have already occurred, and what work
I need to do...I don’t know if I can express how necessary
it is to have this sort of knowledge and practical experience
in public school, especially the sort of under-privileged
district in which I work…So many seem to view teaching
as a profession of last resort, and for a year at Calvin
Hill and the Yale Child Study Center, I could be exposed
to teaching as a profession, as a career, as an important,
valued, exciting, weighty responsibility…This Fellowship
is the kind of training that teachers need when they begin
their first day. This kind of instruction—this rigorous,
hands-on, observational, multi-disciplined, academic training—is
the beginning of an answer to the educational questions
our government is currently asking.
Sarah Frenning (2001-2002). B.A. Carleton
College in Biology. Currently a first year medical student
at University of Minnesota.
Exit
Evaluation Reflections: My time here was been full
of experiential learning. The dual educational and clinical
settings have give me the chance to both gain teaching experience
that I would not get otherwise, and to get a preview of
paths I may take in medicine. What I have gained in my time
at the Child Study Center and at Calvin Hill, is both knowledge
and skills that I could not have learned from simply reading
a book, knowledge and skills that will help me in choosing
and fulfilling my future in medicine. My time (here) has
focused the way I think about children and how I want to
work with them.
Six-Month
Post-Fellowship Reflections: My experience as a Harris
Fellow…helped me to mature in my skills interacting
with children, and helped me to understand child development
in a way that psychology textbooks, and most definitely
medical text books do not allow. I also took away an incredible
model of early childhood education from my experiences at
Calvin Hill. At the Child Study Center, I put that knowledge
into the context of abnormal development. The organization
and multi-disciplinary nature of the Center is a model that
I will bring on to any institution that I work in. The integration
of social work, nursing, psychology, and medicine is incredible.
Although it is still early in my educational experience,
the Fellowship made me fairly sure that my future practice
will be helping young children with developmental delays.
Sarah
Mueller (2001-2002). B.A. Wellesley College in
Psychology. Currently a first year medical student at Tufts
University Medical School.
Exit
Evaluation Reflections: For many years, I have been
sure that I wanted to work with children “when I grow
up”. I am pleased to say that this year has strengthened
both my resolve to do so and my certainty that working with
children will emerge as the right decision for me. I learned
about working with parents from two angles: that of the
teachers at Calvin Hill and that of the mental health professionals
at the Child Study Center…I gained exposure to fields
I had never even known existed, like child psychiatry, clinical
social work, and developmental pediatrics. In fact, child
psychiatry and developmental pediatrics are both on my list
of possible careers. I have also gained appreciation for
a multi-disciplinary approach to working with children and
taking multiple perspectives into account in order to treat
the whole patient, and not just one symptom. In combination
with teaching at Calvin Hill, I acquired knowledge of developmental
norms from the Child Development Unit (at the Child Study
Center)…I am now more familiar with negotiating the
system of counseling and social services for children…Practicing
medicine is a form of teaching, as one must convey to parents
and their children what is going wrong, what one will do
to solve the problem, and how patients themselves can maintain
their well-being…I am at ease with children and have
gained a broad understanding of child development and developmental
norms, gained from the CSC seminars and from experiential
learning at Calvin Hill.
Six-Month
Post-Fellowship Reflections: The Fellowship helped
me to decide that becoming a doctor was the right decision
for me. The clinical and observational learning at the Child
Study Center, combined with the experiential learning as
a teacher at Calvin Hill Day Care Center and the resources
of the Yale University Community all factored into my decision
to pursue a medical education.
While
I was teaching at Calvin Hill, they were also teaching me…I
learned so much about what to expect from “typical”
children, including the wide range in abilities and individual
learning and growth rates, that I will be able to apply
to any work that I do with children in the future. This
knowledge will help me identify children who are on track
developmentally (socially, emotionally, physically, and
academically) as well as those who may need special services.
From the Child Study Center seminars, the Young Child Team
meetings, and clinical cases, I gained insight into developmental
testing, evaluating and treating children who may have developmental
delays. In both locations, I discovered that working with
children involves not only developing special relationships
with the children one is trying to help, but also communicating
and building trust with the child’s parents.
I am
motivated to treat the whole patient and identify underlying
problems in the child’s world. The “whole patient”
approach is one I saw modeled by clinicians at the Child
Study Center as well as by the experienced teachers at Calvin
Hill…Although I still have a few more years before
I have to choose a specialty, I am currently interested
in learning more about behavioral pediatrics...I cannot
emphasize enough how important the fellowship has been,
and will be, in shaping my future career as a doctor.
Jonathan Litt (2000-2001). B.A. Yale University
in Classic Civilization. Currently a second year medical
student at Case Western Reserve University Medical School.
Exit Evaluation Reflections: The fellowship, with
so much hands-on experience in the classroom, seems like
a strange occupation for a student headed to medical school.
Yet nothing, in fact, could prepare me more thoroughly for
a career in pediatrics. I have become a fair assessor of
children’s needs and a sensible mediator for children’s
disputes. I have a good understanding of what we can reasonably
expect from children. I have also become knowledgeable and
sensitive to the issues children face as they grow towards
adulthood. My passion for issues pertaining to child health
and welfare has broadened and intensified and my desire
to act as an advocate for children has burgeoned. I have
also gained a new outlook on my own career path as a result
of working among a cadre of professionals dedicated to the
well being of children and families.
Two
and ½ Years Post-Fellowship Reflections: Prior
to being a Harris Fellow, I attended Yale University and
earned a degree in Classical Civilization. I spent a year
teaching English at a private secondary school in Athens,
Greece. I chose to apply for the Fellowship because it fulfilled
two important objectives regarding my professional development.
First, I believe that understanding typical child development
is a crucial part of being a doctor for young people. In
addition, during my senior year of college, I decided that
I wanted to defer medical school matriculation for some
time in order to gain practical experience working with
children. So much of the practice of medicine is educating
patients about their bodies, both in states of health and
sickness, and I was interested in having some teaching experience
prior to entering medical school. The Fellowship met these
goals perfectly.
As a
Fellow, I was able to learn about children, the ways in
which they grow and learn, both in the academic setting
of the Child Study Center and the practical, hands-on world
of teaching at Calvin Hill Day Care Center. I learned to
speak with and listen to children effectively and sensitively,
to present information to young children in a developmentally
appropriate manner, and to form reasonable expectations
of children based on an understanding of their age and developmental
capabilities. I was quite pleased with being exposed to
the ideas and tenets of child development and then being
encouraged to put them to use while teaching.
The
teachers at Calvin Hill are committed to being competent,
caring, and thoughtful teachers, a sentiment that applied
not only to the children but carried over to the Fellows,
as well. Being about to become a teacher and caregiver in
the young threes classroom and, in so doing, forge personal
connections with the children was extremely enriching. Being
a pediatrician, like being a teacher, requires enlisting
the entire family in order to serve the needs of individual
children. Though daily conversations and at bi-annual parent-teacher
conferences I learned a great deal about interacting with
families, about being receptive to and attentive to their
concerns and needs.
All
of these skills will serve me well in my future career as
a pediatrician, I am certain. I think that it is a rare
opportunity that one finds such a supportive and enriching
integration of work and study. The faculty and staff of
the Child Study Center and Calvin Hill have given me the
tools to become a better physician for children and have
encouraged me to be an informed and impassioned advocate
for children, families, and early childhood education.
Anneliese
Bass (2000-2001). B.A. Wellesley College in Psychology.
Currently conducting research as part of the NICHD Study
of Early Childcare and Youth Development at the Wellesley
Centers for Research on Women.
Exit Evaluation Reflections: Through Calvin Hill
I have gained a working understanding of quality early childhood
education…Working in the day care classroom has offered
me so many moments of joy. I have been able to experience
first hand what participation in full-day quality day care
entails, taking in the perspectives of parents, teachers,
and children alike. I have learned how much work it takes
to create a challenging and supportive environment for children.
I have seen just how necessary open lines of communication
and trust are between parents and teachers. In taking on
an active role as a participating teacher in the classroom,
I have begun to understand just how much individual and
group effort, teamwork, and planning is involved in taking
care of children’s everyday needs. At the Child Study
Center, I’ve enjoyed fully immersing myself in the
role of a student, absorbing and learning from all I see
there. I have been continually impressed with the quality
teaching and guidance I have encountered. I have been awestruck
by the careful and conscientious work the clinicians do
there every day. I now realize just how many people become
involved with young children in order to care for their
best interests… If I still don’t have a concrete
sense of my future work with children, it is precisely because
this program was so well suited to my interests, and I still
need to work out what combination of educational and clinical
work with children will best challenge and utilize my skills.
Nadya Pancsofar (1999-2000). B.A. Vassar
College in Sociology. Currently, a Ph.D. candidate in Early
Childhood, Families, and Literacy in the Education Department
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Exit Evaluation Reflections: My experience in the
classroom at Calvin Hill was truly an in-depth teacher training.
I felt well-supported by other teachers in my classroom,
and most specifically, by Meg, (my mentor) and Carla (the
director). Meg has been an exceptional mentor, not only
in terms of professional support and guidance, but also
as a model teacher. Her skills as an educator and her sophisticated
understandings of child development and early childhood
education are truly inspiring...Coupling the study of early
childhood education with that of clinical psychology, psychiatry,
and social work is useful in many different ways. One’s
understanding of child development and the perspective and
experiences of young children can only be enhanced and deepened
through a multi-disciplinary approach…Coming to this
experience with little knowledge or experience related to
clinical work, these courses helped me to understand these
clinical services for young children.
Professional
fields regarding the health and well-being of young children
are deeply related and interdependent, yet few training
programs are multi-disciplinary. This fellowship couples
extensive work with young children at Calvin Hill Day Care
Center with theoretical studies and discussions from a variety
of educational and clinical perspectives available at the
Yale Child Study Center. The result is a program that develops
a rich professional understanding of young children and
their world…Perhaps not surprisingly, over the year,
my professional interests simply grew, as I worked with
and learned from many experts in the fields of education,
child psychology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and social work.
From these professionals, I gained a deep understanding
and appreciation for child development and the perspectives
of young children.
Two and ½ Years Post-Fellowship Reflections:
After I completed the Fellowship, I was eager to apply my
newly developed teaching skills and understanding of child
development in a school that I felt was in great need of
such well-trained individuals. I took a position as a lead
teacher in an inner-city children’s center in the
Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston. I spent two rewarding
years teaching in this classroom, during which time I faced
challenges that I never could have expected. My students
lived in a dangerous neighborhood with regular crime and
violence, and many of my students had behavioral problems
or developmental delays. However, the skills I learned as
a Fellow made me a very strong teacher. My mentors at Calvin
Hill had provided me with excellent models of how to respect
children and families and how to meet the individual needs
of each child. These skills were invaluable and I felt that
I was able to make a real contribution to my new community.
Not
only did the Fellowship prepare me for challenges within
the classroom, but also for the process of making referrals
for developmental testing and therapeutic services. Because
of my experiences at the Child Study Center, I was able
to better inform the parents in my community about developmental
assessments and treatments. I was also better able to collaborate
with pediatricians and clinicians in developing individualized
goals for my students.
In
looking for a graduate program in child development, I selected
UNC—Chapel Hill because it supports multidisciplinary
learning and collaboration. From my experiences as a Fellow,
I understand this approach to the study of child development
is absolutely vital. At UNC-Chapel Hill, I am working with
Lynne Vernon-Feagans on the Family Life project. This project
is a landmark study of child development from birth to five
years in rural poverty. The scope of this project is tremendous
and interdisciplinary, as investigators include psychologists,
sociologists, pediatricians, economists, and anthropologists.
I have
no doubt that the Fellowship was absolutely central to my
passion for working with and studying young children and
their families, as well as my successes in these efforts.
The Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to develop strong
professionals and academics in the area of early childhood
who come from a variety of backgrounds and hold many professional
interests. I believe that the Fellowship is crucial to improving
the quality of education, care, and services available to
young children and their families. This Fellowship should
serve as a model for other training programs for professionals
working with young children.
Greg
Miller (1999-2000). B.A. Brandeis University in
Psychology. Exited the fellowship to begin a master’s
program in Public Health at Boston University. Current whereabouts
unknown.
Andrew
Gardner (1998-1999). B.A. Wesleyan University in
American Studies. M.A. Bank Street College of Education.
Currently, teaching first grade at Manhattan Country School
in New York City, a private elementary school with a sliding
fee scale and 50% minority enrollment.
Exit Evaluation Reflections: Working with (three
and four year olds) has been a tremendous blessing in my
development as a teacher…Working with young children…forced
me to become a more well-rounded teacher…It was great
to have so many wonderful people watching out for me during
my first year of teaching. They supported me and believed
in me, I think more than I believed in myself…(They)
created a very safe environment in which to take risks…In
the ups and downs of first year teaching, it was extremely
helpful to have a mentor… It was so nice to have time
devoted expressly to my needs…As a teacher, (my classes
at the Child Study Center) helped me think about what signs
I can recognize in my classroom of mental health or developmental
issues, and what services are available to these children
and families.
Three and ½ Years Post-Fellowship Reflections:
While attending Wesleyan University, I became particularly
concerned with social justice and was drawn to education
because the connection between strong education and social
mobility was clear. I wanted to fulfill this need to work
for social justice but I also wanted to experience a position
at a high quality institution where I could be mentored
and see a model. While in New Haven, I learned a tremendous
amount about high quality, developmentally appropriate practice.
I also fulfilled my need to work with a diverse group of
people because Calvin Hill possessed a unique sliding tuition
scale that allowed many members of the multicultural New
Haven community to attend. Furthermore, I observed the careful
leadership skills needed for development and maintenance
of a culturally and socio-economically diverse school community.
After
my year in New Haven, I sent two years teaching 2nd grade
at the Children’s Storefront: a high needs, tuition
free, private school in East Harlem, New York. After a frustrating
and tiresome experience there, I strongly considered quitting
the profession. However, reflecting on my experience during
the Fellowship helped me to choose to enter graduate school
in elementary education instead. The Fellowship had illustrated
the crucial link between teaching, research, and professional
growth. I realized that I needed more time to learn about
the art of teaching, and remembered the satisfaction I felt
with the exposure to high quality teaching, important research,
thorough evaluations, and a strong community during my year
in New Haven. I chose to attend Bank Street College while
teaching 1st grade at Manhattan Country School. The choice
to teach at Manhattan Country was deliberate and in line
with the values I solidified while at Calvin Hill. The school
is small, enrolls over 50% minority children and also possesses
a sliding tuition scale. I continue to learn a great deal
about the gentle touch needed to create small, diverse,
democratic communities. Now that I have been a member of
three schools with alternative admission and tuition policies
(two of them successful), I am realizing my goal to establish
another school like them. My experience as a Fellow has
played a crucial role in my development as a current teacher
and future leader.
Roselia
Guillen (1998-1999). B.A. Harvard University in
Biology. Currently a fourth year medical student at Yale
University.
Three and ½ Years Post-Fellowship Reflections:
I read about the Harris Fellowship in my college career
newsletter. I had been working with Jumpstart for 4 years,
a program that pairs college students with preschoolers
struggling in the classroom. I wanted …to continue
working with children. I was, and still am, planning to
become a pediatrician and I felt that working in schools
would benefit the care I will provide my patients in the
future.
I learned a lot during my fellowship. One of the most surprising
things I learned was that pediatricians receive minimal
training in child development during their training. I hope
to use my experiences working in the classroom to provide
guidance and reassurance to parent’s questions about
their child’s development. I am currently in my 4th
year of medical school. I am applying for residency in Pediatrics.
I think the fellowship continued to strengthen my love of
children and enhanced my skills in interacting with and
caring for young children.
Caitlin
Pike (1997-1998). B.A. Yale University in English.
M.A. Bank Street College of Education.
Four and ½ Years Post-Fellowship Reflections:
Through the Harris Fellowship, I was able to attend classes
at the Yale Child Study Center. The discussions I participated
in and the lectures I attended were eye-opening and greatly
increased my knowledge of early childhood development. One
of the amazing things about the Yale Child Study Center
is that it is a place where people from all different professions
come together united by their interest in children. Talking
with pediatricians, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists,
and educators helped broaden my perspective.
No matter
how much you learn in the classroom, however, it cannot
begin to compare with how much you learn actually working
with children. Working at the Calvin Hill Day Care Center
was an incredible growing experience. The environment of
Calvin Hill was warm and supportive, not just for children,
but for staff as well. My co-workers were so experienced
and knowledgeable. They served as wonderful mentors whose
advice and support influences me to this day.
Since
my time in New Haven, I have continued to work in the field
of education, teaching children ages three through ten.
I left the Fellowship in 1998 and spent a year as an executive
assistant at Teaching Strategies in Washington, D.C. I then
spent a year as a Head Teacher in the Alexandria Community
Network Preschool, in Alexandria, VA. I then entered Bank
Street School of Education in New York, and student taught
children through fifth grade. The Fellowship was a wonderful
learning experience for me and provided and invaluable base
from which to launch my career in education.
Yale School of Medicine