Mary Anne Munley Early Childhood Education Scholarship Award
The Mary Anne Munley Early Childhood Education Scholarship Award was established by Dr. Patrick H. Munley to honor Mary Anne's life and career as a mother and early childhood teacher and to support a legacy of dedication to children and early childhood education. This award is intended to recognize students who show excellent promise and potential as emerging Early Childhood professionals and demonstrate compassion and caring for young children, with the ability to establish special connections to inspire young learners.
As a teacher for over 20 years, and a mother of five children and eleven grandchildren, Mary Anne demonstrates a life-long commitment to the importance of early childhood education to realize the promise of all children. She received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a concentration in early childhood education from Seton Hall University in 1972. After graduation, she served as a director and teacher for an early childhood school in Washington, D.C. before starting her family. For the next 14 years she devoted herself to her family, raising five young children on a full-time basis. In 1988 she returned to teaching full-time and began graduate study at WMU, completing her master’s degree studies in early childhood education in 1991.
Mary Anne served as a dedicated early childhood educator in the Kalamazoo community from 1988 to 2010, primarily as a teacher for Comstock Public Schools. She was a leader in establishing a unique pre-K early childhood program for at-risk children in Comstock, CHIRPENS, in 1990. She served as teacher and director of the program for 16 years, creatively integrating home visits for children and their families. She later served as a kindergarten and second grade teacher in Comstock schools; and, in her retirement, teaches religious education for young children at St. Thomas More Catholic Student Parish in Kalamazoo.
Mary Anne is married to Patrick Munley, and is mother to Elizabeth, Thomas, Michael, John, and Katie. After retirement from teaching, she has focused on the early childhood education of her grandchildren (Kaitlin, Meghan, Lauren, Erin, Finnbarr, Audrey, Gianna, Annabelle, Savannah, Abigail, and Mason), by frequently visiting their classrooms to read stories and making sure their home libraries were filled with many of the classic children books she read to her students, especially the stories of Clifford the Big Red Dog.
