Future Early Childhood Educators Recognized at Inaugural Celebration

Through happy tears, Edajzarea Johnson accepted her award at KCSOS’s inaugural Early Childhood Education (ECE) Pathway Excellence Awards, a deeply moving celebration attended by administrators, students, and families.

“Your words and support have helped me,” Johnson expressed during her speech, referring to Ami Moser, Senior Director of Early Childhood Education at KCSOS. “I hope today I can be that support for someone else.”

Johnson’s words captured the spirit of the event, which honored 16 young adults in the Early Childhood Education Teacher cohorts. The program serves former Regional Occupational Center (ROC) students as well as former and current foster youth. The Kern High School District Regional Occupational Center offers programs for students interested in learning a trade or preparing for an entry-level job after high school. Students in the ECE cohort are students who were in ROC’s Early Childhood Education program as high school students and chose to stay in the program until they received an Early Childhood Education certificate.

Launched in 2024 through a California Department of Education grant to KCSOS’s Early Childhood Education department, the program aims to strengthen the early childhood education workforce. Moser and her team partnered with the Dream Center and ROC to reach out to students, while Bakersfield College and KCSOS College and Career Programs provided workforce training and Career Readiness Academy workshops.

Backed by stipends, academic guidance, and dedicated mentorship, cohort members reached critical educational and professional milestones. Achievements included completing college coursework, earning Early Childhood Education certificates, transferring to CSU campuses, securing employment, and advancing toward their teaching credentials.

“This program is more than just the financial and the academic piece,” explained program manager Cecilia Estrada Montano. “It’s more about that personal support, one-on-one relationship that they get, and we are building a community.”

Friends and family filled the room. For many honorees, reaching this point required extraordinary resilience while balancing full-time jobs with school, parenting, or navigating English as a second or third language.

Alejandra Garcia reflected on her growth as a first-generation college student and mother, as well as the challenges of being a multilingual learner. Her native language is Zapotec, Spanish is her second language, and English is her third.

“That girl who once did not want to go to school could not have imagined that one day she would be a first-generation college student, a mother, a multilingual learner, and someone pursuing a career center around helping others,” Garcia shared. “I also don’t see this celebration as the end of my journey. I see it as the beginning of a new chapter.”

Special awards were presented to Edajzarea Johnson, Marina Garcia, and Serenity Garcia for their perseverance, leadership, academic achievement, and professional promise. Serenity Garcia, now a third-year transfer student at UC Santa Barbara, earned three associate degrees while in the program.

“The support that I’ve been given by Amy, by Ceci, by KCSOS, it’s meant the world,” Serenity Garcia said. “Especially when I was still at community college and doing my associate degrees. They just were always there, and so to be able to have something like this, it’s theirs as much as it is mine.”

Dr. Mendiburu congratulated the students on reaching their personal milestones while working to educate future generations.

“Any position in which you hold in education is very rewarding,” Dr. Mendiburu said. “Take what you know and what you learn, and make sure you continue to give forward and give back. All of you accomplished huge feats to be here.”