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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Eleazar Gutierrez
“I am the oldest of three and my parents immigrated to the United States,” Eleazar Gutierrez said. “I was very attached to my parents, so I cried my whole first month of Head Start.” Of course, crying isn’t the only memory Eleazar Gutierrez has from his Head Start experience in Arvin, CA. “My first few words in English were at a Head Start center. Having Head Start’s support helped me with that accomplishment.”
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More than Milk Cartons (Head Start Alumni Spotlight)
Aida Conroy, a Head Start alum, is currently a 2013 Teach For America corps member teaching at Casa Infantil, a Head Start center of Casa Central in her family’s neighborhood in Chicago.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Dreya Holmes
“Dreya is my humble overachiever,” her mother, Donna Holmes, said. “Ever since she was young and in Head Start, when she would see a problem, she would find a solution and move right on to the next problem.” Dreya’s greatest stumbling block prior to starting Head Start was speaking. At the age of three she was placed in a Head Start classroom where, with her teacher’s and family’s encouragement, she said her first words out loud.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Yesenia Calderon
Yesenia Calderon was born in North Carolina to parents who migrated to the United States in the hopes of a better life for their children. Every year her mother and father spent June through November working in tobacco, potato, tomato, cucumber and cotton farms. At the end of November, Yesenia and her siblings would pack all of their belongings and move down to Florida for the orange season.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Jorge Rodriguez
In honor of Head Start’s 50th Anniversary and Head Start Awareness Month, the National Head Start Association will be highlighting Head Start alumni each weekday in October. We will begin the month with Head Start’s youngest learners and conclude the celebration with the Head Start Class of 1965. As the month progresses, these alumni stories will exemplify the short-term and long-term benefits Head Start has provided for our nation’s most vulnerable children and families for the past 50 years.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Jordan Pridgen
In honor of Head Start’s 50th Anniversary and Head Start Awareness Month, the National Head Start Association will be highlighting Head Start alumni each weekday in October. We will begin the month with Head Start’s youngest learners and conclude the celebration with the Head Start Class of 1965. As the month progresses, these alumni stories will exemplify the short-term and long-term benefits Head Start has provided for our nation’s most vulnerable children and families for the past 50 years.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Kimora Reaves
In honor of Head Start’s 50th Anniversary and Head Start Awareness Month, the National Head Start Association will be highlighting soon-to-be Head Start graduates and Head Start alumni each day in October. We will begin the month with Head Start’s youngest learners and conclude the celebration with the Head Start Class of 1965.
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Louie Neptune
Louie Neptune is a curious five-year-old who attends Head Start at the Passamaquoddy Head Start Program in Pleasant Point, Maine. His mother, Tina Downing is a tribal council member, an engaged parent and a volunteer in her son’s Head Start classroom. “I’ve decided I’m going to be a cop when I grow up,” Louie told his mom. “ Actually, I want two jobs. I want to be a cop and a tow truck driver, so I can arrest them and then tow their car away.”
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Nehemiah Starks
We asked Nehemiah’s mother, Tiffany, to talk about how Head Start has helped her son and her family. Here is what she said:
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Head Start Alumni Spotlight: Yajaira Monreal
At 5:30 AM, Yajaira Monreal’s parents buckle her into her car seat for the drive to her Head Start Family Child Care Home in Castroville, California. After dropping their children off, some families, like Yajaira’s, will leave to work ten- or twelve-hour days with the peace of mind that their child is in a safe and healthy early learning environment.