Career Pathways program<\/a> would make it financially possible to advance her career and earning potential as an early childhood educator. She now studies Early Childhood Education and describes her experience at GCC as \u201cthe most wonderful\u201d of her life. \u201cEvery class and educator has been encouraging and delightful to speak with,\u201d she says. \u201cThis whole journey has been rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\nAthecia credits several GCC faculty members with being instrumental in her success. Career Counselor Vincent Youngwell, she says, has been her \u201cbest supporter and teammate. He is always there with a snack and words of encouragement. He believes in me more than I do in myself most days.\u201d She also points to Senior Program Coordinator Felicia Gooler for her warmth and steady guidance and Professor Peggy Martalock for her infectious positivity and determination to see her succeed. \u201cI owe these three people everything,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Balancing school, work and home life is no small task. In addition to teaching, she is raising her foster child and dedicating herself to creating meaningful opportunities for the children in her care. While she doesn\u2019t have time for traditional extracurriculars, she blends creativity into her after-school program. For the past year, her students (ages five to 12) have been collaboratively designing and building a mosaic mural. She also works with the Western Mass Comic Book Show and hopes to connect her students with professional artists to help nurture the incredible talent she sees in her classroom.<\/p>\n
What she loves most about GCC is the culture of encouragement. \u201cEverybody loves having a cheerleader in their life,\u201d she says. \u201cI have a building full.\u201d That sense of collective investment in student success fuels her determination to earn her associate degree, something she calls \u201clong overdue.\u201d Looking ahead, she plans to take EDU 148 and continue focusing on trauma-informed and special rights education. Her goal is simple and powerful: to improve the quality of life for every child in her care.<\/p>\n
Her advice to prospective students is: \u201cDO IT!! And please use the resources offered. Your advisors are there to keep you engaged and successful.Lean into them. They truly want the best for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Working as a float teacher at local preschool and childcare center, The Learning Knoll, Athecia Yager knew she wanted to deepen her knowledge and strengthen her impact in the classroom. She started at Greenfield Community College in 2023, and says it soon became clear that the Education Department\u2019s Career Pathways program would make it financially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4307,"featured_media":4591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-4590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student","tag-ece"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4593,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions\/4593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}