Jen Maeverde

Jen MaeverdeIn your opinion, what contributions, if any, has CCIDS made to quality inclusive education over its 25-year history?

In the 15 years I’ve been with the Center, I’ve seen tremendous individual growth of practitioners in terms of inclusive early childhood education. Several years ago, I arrived at a program for a meeting involving a child transitioning from the toddler room to the preschool room and the preschool teacher looked me in the eye and said, “I will not have him in my room.” We then worked together for the next two years while he was in her classroom, where she grew to be his strongest advocate and even postponed her retirement to help him transition to kindergarten. There were tears in her eyes when she talked about him growing up and leaving for school. That’s just one of the stories that I’ve had the privilege of witnessing in my work over the years.