Louisiana Delta Community College

From Student to Teacher to Director

CYNTHIA CAGE IS A GRADUATE OF LOUISIANA DELTA Community College’s (LDCC) Care and Development of Young Children (CDYC) program. Since her graduation, her career has grown by leaps and bounds.

Cage is a West Monroe product, born and bred. She speaks about the number of teachers and community members who inspired her.

Cage wanted to be a veterinarian as a kid until she was asked to teach a Vacation Bible School class when she was about 10 or 11 years old. That invitation and experience sparked her desire to teach. “I was asked by an older lady in my church who was a teacher herself, and she saw that potential in me,” explains Cage. She will never forget Ms. Dorothy Simms.“ From that time on, she worked with children periodically. Opportunity knocked once again when Cage’s son began to attend Richwood’s Ouachita Multi-Purpose Community Action Program (OMCAP) Head start. “The director came to me and said you’re a natural. Apply, recalls Cage, and I’ve been in childcare since, and that was in 1999.”

Cage decided to pursue her college education. She obtained an associate’s degree in General Studies from LDCC in 2006. Afterward, she completed the Care and Development of Young Children (CDYC) associate’s degree in 2008. Cage then continued her educational pursuit at Northwestern State University, where she completed a Family and Consumer Science bachelor’s degree. “Delta was the catalyst for my career,” shares Cage. That’s where she met CDYC’s former director, Donna Guice. “From the time I entered her program at Delta until I began to work at the Children’s Coalition, she was my mentor. She pushed me all the way through.”

Even though Cage’s background is in early childhood education, she has taught students in LDCC’s Adult Education program. “When you teach, you teach,” shares a passionate Cage. She uses her talents and experiences to assist others working with head start-aged children at the Children’s Coalition, where she is currently employed. She serves as a coach and gives technical assistance to area directors and other staff. She also helps them with modeling what appropriate concepts and relationships should resemble. This exercise helps teachers increase their skills, which in turn helps them improve their scores on classroom observation.

The key challenges facing Head Starts and childcare, in general, are equitable pay and access for those needing childcare. Equitable compensation is pretty self-explanatory. However, you may not know that all pre-K children who are eligible to attend pre-K are not allowed to go, and the reason is that there’s not enough funding to accept all children. Cage believes that if childcare centers would branch out into their neighborhoods more and engage families and become more visible, other voices may be compelled to petition the legislature for more funding for them as well.

There is debate about pushing academics too early in a child’s life, creating setbacks and resentment in their later academic years. Cage said it doesn’t have to be that way. “If you have quality programs that are well versed in early childhood development, what’s developmentally appropriate, then they are preparing them for school readiness. Much of the school preparedness is to get them socially and emotionally ready,” explains Cage. “When children can do things like ask questions, share their needs, and sit still for a period of time, learning falls into place.”

When asked how teachers are being prepared to navigate issues that impact children’s ability to learn, Cage says Adverse Childhood Experiences Training is being delivered more and more to educators across the board and enables them to be more effective by addressing those issues along with their academic objectives. As a whole, Cage says, they’re trying to better treat the whole child.

“The Associate of Applied Science in Care and Development of Young Children is vital to our area with its many childcare centers,” shares Sandee Clawson, Program Director. “Through this program, we can teach students who are passionate about working with young children developmentally appropriate strategies to nurture children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth.” This program is available at Louisiana Delta Community College’s Monroe Campus at 7500 Millhaven Road. It’s about a mile east of Pecanland Mall and visible from Interstate 20. Says Clawson, “We are fortunate to have an onsite early learning center for 3 and 4-year-old children. At the center, students get hands-on experience working with young children, enabling them to put what they are learning in the classroom into practice.” Enrollment is open for the summer and fall at www.ladelta. edu. Call Sandee Clawson with questions at 318-345-9159.