Meet Kenna: Early childhood unified education

So I've always been drawn to little kids and just interacting with little kids and I initially was drawn to elementary elementary.  But then I heard about the early childhood side of the program and I was like that's perfect, because I only wanted to work with the youngest in elementary. But birth through third grade means that I can go anywhere within that range, which was very interesting to me.

I absolutely love working in the McGinnis Reading Center and Clinic. I really like the lessons that happen in the center's library. For example, my English class went in there a lot and we played games that were centered around literacy and comprehension in general. It was just very interesting and kid friendly and I really enjoyed that. 

Probably Jennifer Lennon, assistant professor of literacy studies. She is just very kind and interactive. In her class we go over a lot of stuff that I can actually apply in the classroom, which is good because I'm actually in the classroom. I am a daycare teacher in the summer, so I can take the stuff she was teaching us and apply it to when I was back home at the daycare.

I first started with the success team when I took an academic success course.  And I loved that course. We read a book called "Atomic Habits", and it was very applicable to my everyday life. So I like, breezed through that book  and it was so interesting just to see different ways that I could just small little alterations that I could make to just my everyday life to make everything just more successful. 

And then I did the peer-to-peer success coaching, which I struggled a little bit with because of my busy schedule. I was taking 17 credit hours and working 20 hours a week at the time. So, I did not have a lot of time to meet up with them, but they tried to be very accommodating and we would message back and forth trying to figure out a success coach that would work for me. We ended up not finding one, but I started working just individually with the CEHD's student success advisor and that was very successful in my opinion.  We met about once a week, and I would say I'm free during this time and they could work around that, which was very helpful. 

I go to the library quite often, just to use just different study spaces. I really like the computers that they are in the basement just so I can be a little bit more secluded.

I ended up not doing so well in one of my classes in the spring semester because I thought I needed a specific grade. So my advisor worked with me and I'm now taking summer courses, which I had intended on taking anyway. But we altered my four year plan so I'm perfectly on track. My advisor is just very kind and supportive, so I didn't really feel bad about myself. 

I worked in athletic facilities, so I was bouncing around everywhere within the athletic facilities. I worked at Lawson Ice Arena, Reed Fieldhouse and I worked a little bit in Waldo Stadium, so I was kind of everywhere. For the most part, I was setting up for the games and it was just a lot of physical labor, which is fine. 

I loved working in all of the facilities, but  my favorite was my position at Lawson. I  initially applied for the job only wanting to work at Lawson, but they needed people elsewhere, so I volunteered to move around. But at Lawson I was cleaning the glass and setting tables for autograph signing with the hockey players. And I was one of the people that was on the ice during the games shoveling to make sure that ice was clear for the players. Being on the ice was pretty normal for me after playing hockey. It was just a little bit of an adjustment getting used to the shovel instead of a stick though, because it didn't quite move the same.

Yes. I have thought about staying in daycare because I love that age group and they are just the sweetest things. 

I know that through the Reading Center, we will have students that come and we get to work with them. I am very excited to see how they grasp the different materials we will be using with them. So I'm very excited to see what tactics that I have been able to use at the preschool level if I can use them for an older age level. 

Because they are literally there to help you. You can utilize them whenever you want. As a freshman when you don't really know how a lot of things work because of the transition to college,  they can help with it a lot and it it's extremely helpful. I personally regret not using it first semester and I know I will be using it in the future whether registering for a peer success coaches or as a peer success coach myself. I just I know I will be utilizing it in the future.

I choose Western, because the community is just amazing. There's so much diversity that I personally didn't have before WMU and the classes are, at least in my experience, more geared towards your major.  Whenever you take like general education classes, they're still like mixed in with your majors.

I just love being on campus because it is beautiful itself. I love all of the different study spaces that are available. And at the Valley Dining Center there is a quiet little area in the front corner that is perfect if I need to eat and work at the same time. Then all of the new spaces are just amazing that they're adding, like the new student center, I am very excited to see what inside.