Ms. Loni
There is nothing short term about Self Development Preschool (SDP). The school has been open three decades and many employees have been with SDP for decades.
Just a random selection of two employees may easily give you 40 years of SDP experience between them. There is a commonality shared amongst the staff at SDP — they are all in it for the long haul.
To answer why longevity is baked into the bones of the staff at SDP is to answer the chicken or the egg problem. Are our intelligent, compassionate specialists first attracted to our advanced, enriched program? Or do we convince the kid, and kindhearted, that this is exactly the place to become who they want to be? Let’s find out.
For some, working at a preschool is a stepping stone to becoming a teacher; finishing a bachelor’s or master’s in education; a rite of passage before embarking on a journey to find how their passion can best fit their job. That might have been the case when Ms. Loni first started working at SDP. Later, for Ms. Loni, and indeed the rest of society, she had to rethink what she adored and what was possible.
Twenty-five years ago, Ms. Loni joined Self Development Preschool. She fell in love with the transformation children undergo while attending Self Development Preschool and has not been able to shake that feeling. “I get to see their journey,” she said. “From their very first words through their graduation — it’s one of my favorite things.”
Watching a toddler speak her first words through to the first words of her 8th grade promotion speech is magical. It is more magical because Ms. Loni spent that time creating that arc with her. And not once, or twice. During the 25 years of working at SDP, there are numerous toddler to teenager journeys.
The point is that Ms. Loni’s favorite thing requires longevity. It requires a decade and change of relentless commitment. And she is not the only one.
Ms. Cinda
Ms. Cinda personifies vitality. A vitality that can only be acquired through time and tenacity. How many basketball-playing, music teacher great-grandmas do you know? She literally wears her heart on her sleeve because one of her favorite treasures is wearing inspirational T-shirts. Showing her heart in this way has changed lives.
If you poll the former and current students about what three words they would use to describe Ms. Cinda, they will say: compassionate, inspiring and talented. And they all tie for first.
One particular student would agree with the results and she makes a great case. Eh-hem (read: as a confident lawyer), “If it may please the reader, as a girl living in Arkansas, she was shy. Very shy and it was Ms. Cinda who told her that her environment was safe. A still vivid memory, she remembers Ms. Cinda would open her arms when the shy girl would walk in through the door. The classroom would lose that menacing quality, and day by day the shy girl and Ms. Cinda would make the monster go away.”
Years passed. One day after playing organ for her church (oh yea, Ms. Cinda also plays the organ), Ms. Cinda received a message through her church’s website. That shy girl had completely annihilated her phobia. The once shy girl was reaching out to tell Ms. Cinda that her words, her love, and her encouragement gave her the strength to conquer anything. She can still hear Ms. Cinda tell her, “You can be anything you want to be. You just have to dream.”
She took her at her word and became the one person you should be afraid of when you walk into a room: a lawyer. The shy girl, who once needed Ms. Cinda to hug her until she could brave the classroom, now commands a courtroom confidently. Her bold voice and her presence now determine the fates of men and women alike. In this way, Ms. Cinda has done what she does every day — change lives.
You cannot change lives if you are not committed to every child. For 15 years, Ms. Cinda has been changing the lives of students that walk through the door of Self Development Preschool — oh yea, she teaches our advanced gifted curriculum too.
Both Ms. Loni and Ms. Cinda together have more than 40 years of experience working at SDP. They both share one crucial thing: they love to watch a child grow up. You can’t do this in the short term. Growing up is a lifetime and our preschool specialists are there for the whole thing.
These are just two Self Development Preschool employees. Many preschool specialists have over decades of experience working at Self Development Preschool.
Of course, Director, Vernetta Madsen, has been changing children’s lives before this writer even knew how to spell these very words. I know this to be true because Vernetta Madsen, and many current and former Self Development employees, were the ones to teach me these very letters you are reading right now.
Self Development employees taught me to write rites and to right wrongs, to add numbers and knowledge, to borrow from the tens and share with my friends. They taught it all. It’s not magic. It’s just that they had time to do so. Simply because Self Development employees are in it for the long haul.
For more information, please contact Ms. Vernetta at Self Development Preschool and Summer Camp at (480) 396-3522.