Child-care program at MGCCC’s Perkinston Campus tapped for top award

The Early Childhood Education Technology program’s child-care facility at the Perkinston Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College has achieved a Level 4 rating from the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System. Front from left, are instructors Kelly Burke and Sarah Nix (director), and back from left, Irvette Dove, Jane Brown and Abbi Arrington.

Toddler teacher Jane Brown, left, and student teacher Jonease Barnwell with toddlers, counterclockwise from left, Miley Baxter, Nathaniel Touchstone and Tristan Williams, all of Perkinston. The Early Childhood Education Technology program at the Perkinston Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is a two-year program that incorporates hands-on teaching to its students at the Child Development Technology Center on campus. The center accepts up to 19 children of students.

Gage Necaise of Gulfport, left, and Jaxson Kane of Lumberton play with infant teacher Irvette Dove at the Child Development Center at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Perkinston Campus. The center is the site for Early Childhood Education Technology, a two-year career program that incorporates hands-on teaching to its students. The center accepts up to 19 children of students.

By Kimberly Jones, MGCCC editor/writer

The Early Childhood Education Technology program’s child-care facility at the Perkinston Campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College has achieved a Level 4 rating from the Mississippi Child Care Quality Step System. This quality-check system is conducted by the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the Office of Children and Youth, and the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute.

Upon successful completion of this two-year Early Childhood Education program, students are awarded an associate degree. The program is also offered at the college’s Jackson County Campus in Gautier and the Jefferson Davis Campus in Gulfport. Since 1994, the Early Childhood Education program provides students hands-on experience with children. Five individuals supervise the Child Development Center at Perkinston Campus, which is licensed for 19 children (only children of Gulf Coast students are accepted into the program at all campuses). The staff includes Sarah Nix, center director and program instructor; Kelly Burke, preschool teacher and assistant director; Jane Brown, toddler teacher; Irvette Dove, infant teacher; and Abbi Arrington, assistant teacher. “The staff and I worked as a team to earn this rating,” says Nix, who has been with the program for almost three years.

The individuals who conducted the onsite visit based the Level 4 rating on their observations and on many other things, including touring the child-care center, reviewing program documentations and teacher portfolios, and much more. As Nix says, the process was exhausting, but well worth it, as is the hard work the staff devotes into caring for the children and instructing future child-care workers.

The daily schedule, approved by the Mississippi State Department of Health, provides a wide variety of activities. The children have two hours of outdoor activities and opportunities to develop positive self-concept skills. “The children explore, create, and learn through child-initiated and teacher-directed activities, providing positive outcomes for the program, children and families. “

“Graduates of the program are getting the experience in the program’s child-care learning lab, which prepares them to be child-care directors. They gain the knowledge and experience of owning their own childcare businesses and working as the lead teacher and or assistant teacher in a child-care classroom. In addition, they are acquiring knowledge to be employed in private, public and state child care.

or more information about the Early Childhood Education program at any Gulf Coast location, visit www.mgccc.edu, or call, toll-free, 1-866-735-1212 and ask to speak to the director of Early Childhood Education Technology at the Perkinston Campus, Jackson County Campus or Jefferson Davis Campus.