Today@Sam Article
ACE Course Impacts Lives At A Maternity Home
Oct. 14, 2024
SHSU Media Contact: Mikah Boyd
By Lidia Gutierrez
Early childhood education is vital to the well-being of all individuals. As a society, we are learning better ways to teach the youngest amongst us. This understanding leads us to the importance of nurturing educational development from the very beginning.
Sam Houston State University Assistant Professor of Education Melissa Gatlin understands this, which is why she created her first-ever Academic Community Engagement (ACE) course to help engage her early childhood students in a real-world setting.
“I have always had an interest in finding ways to integrate the work we do in the classroom with ways to benefit the community,” said Gatlin.
Her students worked with Journey Home, an organization based in Montgomery County, Texas. They are a non-profit maternity home that provides safety and shelter for pregnant women experiencing homelessness, as well as toddlers and newborns. They also help educate the women on various topics ranging from prenatal care to child nutrition.
Gatlin’s students got to meet mothers and their young ones, and were able to create learning activities for the children, whose ages range from newborn to four years old.
“The students liked the project very much,” Gatlin said. “I think it opened their eyes to the fact that some parents have no support, which is an important lesson for future teachers of young children to learn.”
The students also put together a handbook detailing each activity, including instructions on how to create and use them to support their children’s development. Additionally, they curated a culturally responsive home library, enabling mothers to begin reading to their children right away. They then visited the homes to deliver the activities and discuss with the young mothers how these activities benefit their children.
"I absolutely loved taking the lead on this project with a great deal of help from my classmates, it was very rewarding,” Waskow said.
All the activities were evidence-based and crafted by the students using insights from their early childhood theories courses. They also highlighted the significance of reading to children and offered tips for engaging with young readers.
“Journey Home expressed gratitude toward the activities and the fact that the students took the time to come to the house,” Gatlin said. “They even sent a few pictures a couple of months after our visit to give us an update on how the activities were being used.”
Gatlin expressed her enthusiasm for working with this organization and shared her eagerness to continue working with ACE courses.
“I would like to continue doing ACE courses,” Gatlin said. “I would love for other early childhood classes to work with this organization to bring different ideas and resources to these mothers.”
Academic Community Engagement (ACE) is a teaching method that combines community engagement with academic instruction. This pedagogy encourages students to use the skills, knowledge and dispositions learned in the classroom to collaborate with community partners to contribute to the public good. SHSU offers hundreds of ACE courses within an academic year.
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