S3E24: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! Early Childhood Education Managers Annie Garrett and Natasha Gray

In this our twenty-fourth episode (24th) of Season 3, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews Early Childhood Education Managers Annie Garrett and Natasha Gray about their program at North Seattle and about their roles helping students succeed in that program.

For more information about the program, please email: ECEinfo@seattlecolleges.edu

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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show 'Conversations with!', where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  1:07  
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges 'Conversations with!' I'm really excited. Sometimes we invite guests who represent programs within our schools. Today, I have a very special program represented early childhood education. I will let you guys introduce yourselves, tell them who you are, kind of maybe a little bit about your background and how you came to North Seattle College. We're here at North. Annie, you want to start?

Annie Garrett  1:33  
Sure. Yeah, when I was getting my master's, I was connected to some folks who are working here in the advising office, and when I heard that they would be launching an early childhood education bachelor's degree program, I went after it. I just was passionate about it. I knew that was what I wanted to do, and that was about 10 years ago, and I'm managing the program now. Yeah, we've had incredible growth over the last 10 years, and it's just been the kind of job you would never leave. 

Evan Franulovich  2:02  
Nice. 

Natasha Grayy  2:04  
I'm Natasha Gray, so I'm the ECE language manager, but how I started with North was actually I was at South Seattle College working as child care specialist over there in their early learning area. And Annie actually visited the child care campus asking about enrolling people into the bachelor's program. And I was one of those people, so I'm an alumni at North, and I went to the bachelor's program for early childhood education, went on to get my master's, but also made a lot of great connections here at North, and ended up working here. 

Evan Franulovich  2:33  
Wow, that's really cool. 

Natasha Grayy  2:34  
Yeah, been here for like, what, eight years now.

Evan Franulovich  2:38  
I looked online Seattle Central does not have a early childhood education program any longer, but they did at one time. 

Annie Garrett  2:46  
They did.

Natasha Grayy  2:46  
They did.

Evan Franulovich  2:47  
And South did at one time?

Annie Garrett  2:50  
It's been awhile.

Natasha Grayy  2:50  
It's been a long time, but we also use them, I believe, it's like a satellite.

Evan Franulovich  2:55  
Gotcha. We've had some satellites. So really, if they want to come to Seattle Colleges and do early childhood education, North is their their only place. Okay, I want to be really... I'm not very smart guy. So tell me, and maybe our guests who are listening, they're interested in kids or interested in working with kids. But, what is early childhood education? What does it prepare them to do exactly?

Natasha Grayy  3:20  
Yeah, so early childhood education, you're primarily working with children from birth to age eight. We typically focus from birth to age five, so you're understanding Child Development a little bit about their milestones as they grow up and everything. A lot of times when people hear early childhood education, they immediately think elementary education, or any other form of education, but realistically, you are starting from birth, and then you're watching the child as they grow, understanding their literacy skills, their language skills, and how they see the world. 

Evan Franulovich  3:52  
Cool. 

Annie Garrett  3:56  
Yeah, yeah. Most of our students are working in preschools or early learning programs covering infant-toddler. The field is professionalizing, and so we're seeing more demand, I mean exponentially more demand for teachers that have degrees, because we found that, you know, quality centers hire teachers that have certificates and degrees in the field to teach zero to five, even though early childhood technically goes up through age eight, most of our students are working with the zero to five year olds. 

Evan Franulovich  4:28  
Right.

Natasha Grayy  4:29  
And when we say like early learning programs, we're talking about child care programs, family-home child care programs, Head Start, outdoor early preschool programs, or even some preschool co ops, like I've seen some of our students actually teach in the program. So that's where we're saying where early learning is in that field.

Evan Franulovich  4:50  
Interesting. So I don't really know the difference. You just said two. What were the first two that you mentioned? You said...?

Natasha Grayy  4:55  
Child care programs. 

Evan Franulovich  4:56  
Uh huh. 

Natasha Grayy  4:57  
And then there's family home child care programs. 

Evan Franulovich  4:59  
What's the difference? 

Natasha Grayy  5:00  
Yeah. So, child care programs are like, usually, larger organizations. You may see them here in the Seattle area. So they could be like Bright Horizons or Kiddy Academy or Kinder Care, and then family home child care programs are usually in a person's home who is licensed and certified to have children in their care. 

Evan Franulovich  5:19  
Right. So to get license to open up, say, a child care in your home. Do you have to have a degree?

Natasha Grayy  5:24  
Yes, you have to have at least a certificate. So we have different certificates in their ECE program. So early childhood education, also known as ECE, we are going to use that acronym a lot. But for the state of Washington, you need a short certificate to own a family home, child care. That's one of the requirements. 

Evan Franulovich  5:24  
Gotcha. So, yeah, I was looking on our website, and there was a whole laundry list of different certificates. There was only an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree, but then there were all these different types of certificates. Can you...I don't know, give the quick and dirty on the difference between all of them? 

Natasha Grayy  6:02  
Sure. There's three certificates. The beautiful thing about it, they're stackable, so they go into one another. 

Evan Franulovich  6:07  
Oh! 

Natasha Grayy  6:07  
So, there's the initial certificate, which is 12 credits in the state of Washington that is required by assistant teachers. Then there's the short certificate that I talked about, that is 20 credits. So once you're done with the initial you go into the short certificate, so the 12 credits, and then you work until you get to that 20 credits. 

Evan Franulovich  6:24  
Gotcha. 

Natasha Grayy  6:25  
And then that short certificate will allow you to be a lead teacher in the state of Washington or a family home Child Care owner. You can go on to the state certificate, if you choose to. And that is 47 credits, and then you can become a program supervisor or a child care program director. So that is required for the state of Washington associates degrees, typically for people who want to work in like Head Start programs. And then, of course, the bachelor's degree. So all of those certificates go into the associates program, and a lot of our students start with the initial because that's the basis that will help you get that job. And then they work on the short and then the state, and then associates. 

Evan Franulovich  7:06  
Okay. Interesting. So if they want to do an associate's degree here, say, but then they want to transfer somewhere else to do the bachelor's degree, are those credits they get here fairly transferable, or are they fairly unique to this establishment?

Natasha Grayy  7:24  
Yeah, so transferable to any other bachelor's program? 

Evan Franulovich  7:27  
Yeah, yeah. 

Natasha Grayy  7:28  
So I would say, depending on the program they're transferring to, they're going to an early childhood education program, that's bachelor's. The majority of the credits, well, it's depending on the organization itself of what credits they were taken. But for our program, our associates degree will definitely go into the bachelor's program.

Evan Franulovich  7:45  
Right. 

Annie Garrett  7:46  
Can I jump in? 

Evan Franulovich  7:47  
Sure. Yeah, of course.

Annie Garrett  7:47  
University of Washington, just one or two years ago, changed their articulation to where they would take our associate, and associates statewide into their early childhood and Family Studies program, bachelor's. It's a bachelor's completion. 

Evan Franulovich  7:58  
Right. 

Annie Garrett  7:58  
So competition with us. Of course, we'd love for students to stay here, doing bachelors here, but students could go to you the University of Washington with their associate from here. That's news, that's a new thing. Other universities, I'm not sure. They'll accept, definitely the general education, they'll accept a good chunk of our associate but unlike Udub, they may not accept the entire degree. It varies university to university. 

Evan Franulovich  8:30  
The school that jumps to mind is Western Washington, is pretty well known education school. Do you know what they have there? Just by chance?

Annie Garrett  8:38  
My assumption would be that they would take all the gen eds and then 15 electives, but probably not the entire degree. 

Evan Franulovich  8:45  
Gotcha. 

Annie Garrett  8:46  
Yeah. So then students are left with the option to stay here or potentially to go to UW, which are really fabulous options. Those are actually the two largest programs in the state. Ours is actually larger than the University of Washington, believe it or not. 

Evan Franulovich  8:57  
What?! 

Annie Garrett  8:58  
It is, yeah.

Evan Franulovich  8:59  
What size are the cohorts for your different years?

Annie Garrett  9:07  
We have about 25 in each cohort, and we have eight cohorts. 

Evan Franulovich  9:11  
Okay. 

Annie Garrett  9:12  
So we're about 200 plus, because we also have some students that are finishing, you know, doing pre reqs or finishing in the third year. So over 200 enrolled. 

Evan Franulovich  9:22  
Wow. 

Annie Garrett  9:22  
Associate. Hard to count. 

Natasha Grayy  9:25  
It is hard to count. We have different types of pathways, this may be confusing for a lot. So there's the English traditional pathways, as most students here would just enroll themselves into their respective ECE classes, following our degree pathways. I can't say there's specific cohorts for that, because we don't have a cohort model specific for English program. So I wouldn't be able to tell you how many students. I could confidently say it was more than 500 students. 

Evan Franulovich  10:10  
Wow! Okay. 

Natasha Grayy  9:52  
In the ECE program, and then we do have a Language Pathway Program as well, which is Somali, Mandarin, Spanish, and Arabic, and with those cohorts in general, they're around 25 students in each cohort, and there's probably like 400 students altogether.

Evan Franulovich  10:11  
Okay, so let's focus on this language thing, because I'm not sure I totally understand what you are talking about. Are the classes taught in those languages? 

Natasha Grayy  10:18  
Yes.

Evan Franulovich  10:18  
Oh, they are?

Natasha Grayy  10:19  
They are. We have a very long wait list for those language programs because we are one of the only ones in the state that has a diverse offering for it. And so for our language program, for example, Spanish, all students can get all their certificates, associates and bachelor's degree entirely taught in Spanish or with Spanish support.

Annie Garrett  10:38  
I know it's very rare. Nationally, It's rare. 

Natasha Grayy  10:41  
Very rare. And then we also have Arabic, who's going on to their Associate's degree. And then we have Somali that's up to the short certificate in Mandarin, up to their short certificate. So there's a huge, huge interest. We do have an extensive wait list, because we're one of the only colleges and or universities that offer it in the state of Washington.

Evan Franulovich  11:01  
if I'm a kid living in, say, Jordan, and I want to do this, I can come here to the US do the whole thing in Arabic. 

Annie Garrett  11:24  
In theory, remember the wait list. We would have to figure that. 

Evan Franulovich  11:15  
Okay, well, let's go back. We want to learn how to get onto this wait list, or if they don't, if they don't, if they want to do it in England, a lot of students that are coming internationally, they want to have that English experience, improve their English. So I am an international student. I've discovered Seattle Colleges. I want to apply for your program. How do we do that? I know initially they have to apply to international programs and get accepted. But beyond that, what do they have to do?

Natasha Grayy  11:42  
It's just like any normal student would. They would just, you know, say that they want to go to early childhood education. The bachelor's program does have a specific bachelor's application, so not the certificate or the associate's degree. We don't have a specific application for that. The students are welcome to apply to North Seattle College or to the international program, and they can start our program from the get go. If they want to focus on the English pathways, there's more opportunities for them to start immediately once the quarter starts, versus the language pathways, because there is a very big interest in it. And so we would love to expand it. We just need more instructors. And all of that. 

Evan Franulovich  12:04  
Is it kind of a first come first served?

Natasha Grayy  12:21  
So the wait list that so I handle the wait list. 

Evan Franulovich  12:25  
Okay. 

Natasha Grayy  12:25  
So everybody's welcome to email me if they're interested in it, and I will place them on the wait list. As we open a cohort, I will start from the beginning at the wait list and then work through it as well. 

Evan Franulovich  12:34  
Gotcha. Interesting. Somali seems like a fairly obscure language group? We must have a large Somali community? 

Annie Garrett  12:43  
We do.

Natasha Grayy  12:43  
We do.

Evan Franulovich  12:45  
Interesting. How many people are in that...? I don't even know how to ask it properly. How many Somali students do we have in that group?

Natasha Grayy  12:53  
So in total, we've had five cohorts for the Somali program, and so that's around about 125 students. But again, there's a wait list. We have a huge Somali population here. 

Evan Franulovich  13:05  
Wow. 

Natasha Grayy  13:05  
And a lot of them are family home child care providers, and so they're looking to further their education. They just never had that opportunity, and you know, higher education can be scary. 

Evan Franulovich  13:05  
Yeah. 

Natasha Grayy  13:15  
Especially if English is not your first language. So having this program for them, assists them so much, to maintain their employment one and also to maintain their educational requirements to operate a family home child care program. 

Evan Franulovich  13:29  
Sure. Now if you're out there listening, you need to understand that a lot of these people we're talking about are domestic students. Am I right? They're not here on an F-1 visa. If you're watching this show and listening, you're probably an international student wanting to get an F-1 visa come to the United States study, with the intent to go home and use your skills and your new education. So let's go back to I've applied to Seattle Colleges. They just say, 'Hey, this is the program I want to do.' It's kind of really that easy. It sounds like.

Natasha Grayy  14:00  
Yeah, it really is. So depending on what pathway they want to go to, we'll connect them. We have so many staff support, from our associates program manager to myself to our outreach specialist, and then we also have a lot of people who speak various language from, again, Mandarin, Arabic, Somali Spanish. That's able to assist if English is not their first language as well. 

Evan Franulovich  14:21  
Right. Is there any plans to expand on the number of languages that are offered? Like, are you going to do a Brazilian Portuguese group?

Natasha Grayy  14:30  
We would love to in the future. There's a lot of interest in many different languages, even including Native American languages, sign language as well as another one that's been Russian as well. There's just so many different opportunities there. We just it takes a lot of planning, honestly, to open these programs up, and so once we have enough resources, we wish to open. We hope other colleges will follow along.

Annie Garrett  14:54  
Yeah, we do. 

Natasha Grayy  14:54  
That way everybody can have opportunities for this. 

Annie Garrett  14:57  
Yeah, we want to share. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because of the wait list, you know?

Natasha Grayy  15:03  
We see that there is a need. 

Evan Franulovich  15:05  
Okay, so I've applied, I've got accepted, but I need to know when I can start as an international student. So there's a little bit of confusion. Even with us recruiters, we're not sure, but it seems to us that international students, because they have to have an in class component, they have to have at least seven units every quarter. Is it only in the fall that they can begin, or can they start in the spring?

Natasha Grayy  15:31  
They can start anytime.

Annie Garrett  15:32  
They can start any quarter, with the exception of the bachelor's. The bachelor's you can come in from our associate, but you can also come in with a bachelor's degree or an associate degree or equivalent from another college or university, even international. But you do have to get prerequisites. So if you don't have an associate in ECE, you would need to get prerequisites. And there's 26 credits of prerequisites, including English 101. 

Evan Franulovich  15:32  
Okay. 

Annie Garrett  15:35  
And so if you have and if you have an international degree in ECE. We could even consider that as meaning the prerequisites, potentially that the bachelor's does start in the fall. Prerequisites you can take year round, but the actual cohort is a two year program, and it starts every fall. 

Evan Franulovich  16:13  
Gotcha. 

Annie Garrett  16:13  
Yeah. So, that one's on a sequence with a summer break built in, which is mostly good for international students. 

Evan Franulovich  16:19  
That is great. In that program are they required to do an internship at some point where they're placed in a...?

Natasha Grayy  16:29  
Both associates, or actually all levels, certificates, all the way to the bachelor's program, they do have to secure a site, either volunteer for it, or whatever their visa permits them to. They do have to be working with children in that early learning age range. That way they can take what they're learning and all that skills and just see it in action. We also want to just know what they're experiencing too in their early learning field, and how we can help them understand these things too.

Evan Franulovich  16:54  
Right. 

Natasha Grayy  16:55  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  16:56  
You guys should know if you're going into this field, you'll probably be fingerprinted, I'm guessing. There will be security background checks. So it's a little different than maybe you know, if you're an accounting major, is there anything else they need to be aware about, like special equipment they would have to purchase as a student, or other special kinds of screenings they might have to go through? 

Natasha Grayy  17:17  
Well, usually in the state of Washington, if you're just like a volunteer, you're not necessarily like, you know, supporting children and like, maybe using the restroom or anything like that. You're more hands off in the state of Washington. They may ask you to do a CPR. I'm not entirely sure if that is required, CPR first aid, just to have that under your belt. Other things that they would need for our class in particular.

Annie Garrett  17:43  
Definitely the background check, and it can take some time to set up a volunteer stint, because they have to go through that process. So I'd say just some lead time, right? You know, you probably need at least a month to get your volunteer placement set up. We do have some international students who volunteered here on campus. At our campus child care. We have some students, faculty and staff, so that can be a good opportunity for international students. We've also had international students do the CPT, the curricular, practical training through external preschools. We do have relationships. However, most of the students in our program are already working when they join our program, and so we, you know, we have relationships, and we can be of support, but we're also really flexible, because usually students self place, and so we usually try to help the student find something that's going to be really convenient for them, maybe near their home, and that really aligns with their career goals. And, you know, it can take a little while to find a placement. Everyone would love to have a volunteer, pretty much. It's just a matter of, like, you know, getting through that, that process of being placed.

Evan Franulovich  18:49  
Yeah. You would be applying for OPT, a good couple of quarters before you graduate. 

Annie Garrett  18:56  
Yeah, we've had students do OPT. So, CPT is while you're in the program. 

Evan Franulovich  19:00  
While you're in the program, yes. 

Annie Garrett  19:01  
And then OPT we have had students successfully go into OPT. I haven't honestly been involved in an OPT transition, but we had a student who did it after getting her Associate at Central, Associate of Arts. Did OPT, and then came and did her Bachelor's with us. There is, you know, I think it works best if you're open to doing volunteer work on campus, because there's limits in how much you can do your CPT, right? 

Evan Franulovich  19:28  
Right.

Annie Garrett  19:28  
Like you can't do it every single quarter, she couldn't do it after OPT. There are limits there. And it's probably a good idea to kind of work that out in advance if you're going to go into the bachelor's to make sure there will be placement on campus, because you do have to have at least five volunteer hours a week while you're in the bachelor's, and at least three hours a week while you're in the associate. So it can help to kind of plan this out in advance. But like Tasha said, associate is so flexible with how students enroll bachelor's is a bit more a bit more structured, so we'd want to plan ahead for that and make sure you can be in that practical throughout.

Evan Franulovich  19:28  
Right. Planning is always a good idea guys. Really, really good idea. 

Annie Garrett  20:04  
And you would contact me to do that. 

Evan Franulovich  20:07  
And at the end of this, we'll put their email addresses in the comment section, and you guys can tell them before we go. So little kids, are they actually...I mean I've seen the toys out here. There's a little house, I think. So tell us about when kids come on campus, how long they stay? What do they have actual classes? I'm just curious how that looks. 

Annie Garrett  20:32  
So, those are actually departments external from ours, but we know a bit, just because, of course, we've had students placed in them. 

Evan Franulovich  20:39  
Oh.

Annie Garrett  20:40  
So the campus childcare is kind of a regular childcare. I believe it's like eight to five, Monday through Friday. It's run by our Student Activities Board. 

Evan Franulovich  20:40  
Oh, so it's separate.

Annie Garrett  20:43  
It is separate, but we have a relationship obviously, we have students there. Because we're the academic side, and then the actual childcare and then, but we work with the director on placements. And then we also have the cooperative preschools, which is where community members come in and they volunteer in the classroom with their child. We haven't had international students placed there because it's almost entire it's already well staffed with parents who are volunteering there, but you'll see kids running around on campus, and those are really limited hours. It's like three hours a day. 

Natasha Grayy  21:24  
And I believe the child care programs start at 18 months. 

Annie Garrett  21:29  
Yeah, it doesn't have infants. 

Natasha Grayy  21:31  
Yeah. 

Annie Garrett  21:31  
But the co op does have infants, so you will sometimes see babies on campus, but yeah.

Evan Franulovich  21:37  
Little people, that's awesome. I used to work at a daycare center for a very short period of time. Grizzly Cubs Daycare up in Alaska, there's a not a lot of kids in our community, but it sure was a lot of fun. 

Annie Garrett  21:49  
Mostly just grizzly cubs. 

Evan Franulovich  21:51  
Yeah, that's right. No, it was really fun, really hard work. I had to get up super early. It was fun. You guys have kids? I'm guessing...

Annie Garrett  22:00  
I do, yeah, yeah. And my daughter was actually North Seattle College's youngest student in 2017. 

Evan Franulovich  22:09  
Wow! 

Annie Garrett  22:10  
2017 she was the youngest student because she was in the infant co-op year. She was, like, three months old when she was a student.

Evan Franulovich  22:17  
And what she doing now? 

Annie Garrett  22:19  
Oh, she's just, you know, killing it out there as a second grader.

Evan Franulovich  22:22  
That's one my favorite grades. That's really cool. Well, how many international students do you guys have at any one time? Before we started rolling, it didn't sound like there's a lot.

Natasha Grayy  22:36  
Yeah, so we have about, I want to say about three possibly right now in our programs. I believe the bachelors.

Annie Garrett  22:45  
We have one in the bachelor's currently, we have had up to three enrolled in one year, and then we had, yeah, I want to say it's maybe three or four in the associate program right now, so we know who they are. 

Evan Franulovich  22:57  
Yeah, yeah. 

Annie Garrett  22:57  
The good thing to being small is that, like, we will know you, right? Like you will develop that relationship. That is the good thing about being small. 

Natasha Grayy  23:06  
And I felt like everybody in our team, faculty and staff, are very personable, so we want to get to know you, build that relationship and just help you as a student you know, don't ever feel like you're disconnected from us, or you're one of ours, you're our families. And we also want to take care of you as well.

Evan Franulovich  23:21  
All right. I think international students are so great, especially the exposure to young people. So to have a diversified student body that is going to be interacting with, I think that made really great. Do you happen to know where those students were from? Just off the top of your head, which parts of the world? 

Natasha Grayy  23:38  
Yeah.

Annie Garrett  23:39  
In the bachelor's right now from Latin America, we've had a Brazilian student, we've had a Thai student, and we have had a Chinese student.

Evan Franulovich  23:47  
Yeah, and do they talk about how they plan to use their education and skills when they go back, or do they have an idea? 

Annie Garrett  23:56  
Oh, and I'm sorry, we also had a student from, I believe, was Egypt. 

Evan Franulovich  23:59  
Oh.

Annie Garrett  24:01  
Yeah, somewhat to be elementary educators. And I will say in the US, after getting our bachelor's, you would need to go get a master's degree to become an elementary educator. That's the way it works in the US. I don't know how it works in other countries, but obviously that's something to look into, because we are not a licensure program in the US, to work in kindergarten up, you need a licensure, but our bachelor's can get you into a master's in teaching, where you get that teacher licensure and you can work up at the elementary level. So some students have wanted to do that. Other students when to be preschool teachers and so, and other students, you know, went and did an OPT afterwards. Another a student that I worked with last quarter when to go on to a master's after this. It various.

Evan Franulovich  24:42  
It really various. 

Annie Garrett  24:44  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  24:45  
If you're out there and you're interested in this program, by all means, let us know. We want to help you through the process. Can you guys give them your emails or your or maybe your department email so that they can contact you, and then I'll put it in the comments as well. 

Natasha Grayy  24:59  
Definitely. Our Department email is eceinfo@seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  25:07  
Right on. 

Annie Garrett  25:08  
And if you already know that you want that, if you already have an associate and you're planning ahead for the Bachelor so you have roughly 90 college credits, maybe a bachelor's from your home country, then you can come straight to me in the bachelor's program, and it's annie.garrett@seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  25:24  
Well, let's talk about that for a second, because I do get a lot of students who are in their home countries, they already have a bachelor's degree, say, in engineering or whatever, and they just want to make a change, or they want to do something different, so they would need to submit transcripts, I'm guessing, for your evaluation. Or do they have, like, a third party evaluation?

Annie Garrett  25:42  
Third party evaluation, yeah. And we can accept a lot of, I mean, we can accept up to 120 credits from an international bachelor's degree, and you have to get the prerequisites and ECE to be prepared for the bachelor's. 

Evan Franulovich  25:56  
So when they apply, so what order does it happen? They get accepted, then they submit their transcripts? Or do they submit their transcripts at the same time that they're applying what order first?

Annie Garrett  26:08  
They go through international programs and get accepted into International Programs first. 

Evan Franulovich  26:08  
Okay. Sure.

Natasha Grayy  26:14  
Unfamiliar, right? 

Annie Garrett  26:16  
And then from there, if they're starting with the associate, I think I'd say it's reaching out to ECE info and just, you know, making sure that you know the plan and so forth. We're aware that you're coming and all that. And with the bachelor's, we do have a formal admissions process. We have a deadline twice per quarter, but if you you know, if you've met the main criteria is the minimum credit requirement, so 70 college level credits, and then a willingness or ability to do the prerequisites, and there's a good likelihood you will be accepted. You do need six months work experience with children, but you can accumulate that while working on your prerequisites.

Evan Franulovich  26:52  
Right. If they've already done it, how do they prove it? Do they get a letter from a place they've worked? 

Annie Garrett  26:59  
We take a resume. 

Evan Franulovich  27:00  
Take a resume. All right, cool. So if you're out there and you want to change careers, or you got a bachelor's, and you want to come to the US. It's a great way to do that. I'm open to what other...you know I don't know, what I don't know. So what else do you want our international students to know before we wrap this up?

Natasha Grayy  27:21  
I mean, for the certificates, there's different specializations as well. So there's the initial, of course, that's just a general one, and then you have the short certificate where you can specialize. So there's the general specialization in early childhood education, there's infant and toddler, there's administration, there's school aged care, and there's family home child care. So if you want to specialize in any one of those specifically, you definitely can, again, all of those credits will go into the state certificate, which in turn goes into the associates degree. So a lot of students would ask like, what are all of these other courses below in the short certificate? Well, those are specialization courses. 

Evan Franulovich  27:59  
Gotcha. 

Natasha Grayy  27:59  
So they can choose to specialize in any one of those, if they like,

Evan Franulovich  28:02  
and are most of those, because I know a lot of international students worry about getting enough credits so they can maintain their visa status. Are most of these classes offered in person? 

Annie Garrett  28:12  
That was the next thing I was going to bring up. Zoom has been incredibly popular with our population, and so many of our classes are now zoom based, rather than in person. We also have fully online classes. International students take in person general education classes on campus. 

Evan Franulovich  28:30  
Okay. 

Annie Garrett  28:31  
And then for the Zoom based classes, we'll set up meetings where they would come in and meet with the instructor one on one. 

Evan Franulovich  28:37  
So it's kind of a hybrid. 

Annie Garrett  28:38  
It's kind of a hybrid. Now the domestic students aren't coming in for that, that's one of the ways we get to know the international students better. So it's a special arrangement. We arrange it quarter by quarter, but you're still coming to campus every week, so you're doing your general education to get you up to that 12 credits. You're doing that general education here on campus. So it is a really, it's pretty flexible model, but it is something to be aware because if you were thinking you're going to be here on campus with your ECE compadres every single day, it will look differently than that. You'll be seeing people on Zoom. 

Evan Franulovich  29:11  
Gotcha. 

Natasha Grayy  29:12  
Yeah. And the reason for this, just so you can kind of understand the workforce, is majority of our students are working, so during the day, they're working and they don't have they typically don't have access to their phones or computers because they have to be with children hands on all day. 

Evan Franulovich  29:27  
Yeah, but I can't imagine trying to take care of my little guys and do a classes. 

Natasha Grayy  29:34  
So majority of our classes that do start in that are on Zoom start at 6:30pm in the evening, or we do have some statute classes as well, so most of our classes are in the evening or online or in the morning on the weekend. 

Evan Franulovich  29:47  
Interesting. Okay, so you won't have to worry about getting up at 8:30am in the morning to come for a 10am class.

Annie Garrett  29:54  
Unless you're taking a general education class at 8:30am, but you probably have some better time choices. 

Evan Franulovich  29:59  
Yeah, yeah. I know that we offer the foundation scholarship in general to all of our students. Are there any other special scholarships that you guys know of that are specific to this field...?

Natasha Grayy  30:12  
Specific to this field? 

Evan Franulovich  30:14  
...that international students could apply for outside of the foundation.

Annie Garrett  30:19  
It's very so it is a very well funded field. However, it's mostly imply attached to employment. 

Evan Franulovich  30:26  
Okay. 

Annie Garrett  30:26  
And so as international students are typically volunteering, there's the main limitation. And so the Seattle Colleges Foundation has been what we've referred to, yeah.

Evan Franulovich  30:42  
Yeah, right. 

Annie Garrett  30:44  
I wish I could say more. 

Evan Franulovich  30:45  
No, that's okay. It's good for them to know. You know, if it's not there, it's not there. And it's just good information for them so they can make a determination where to go, what to do. It's really great to meet you guys. I appreciate all the information. Thanks for being here. Any last words before we go? I want to give you the chance to...

Natasha Grayy  31:07  
Yeah, if you're looking to join our program, we're excited to have you, and we hope to get to meet you. We will eventually run into some form away. But again, just go ahead and reach out to us if you're interested. We would love to get you started in our program.

Evan Franulovich  31:23  
Good website to check out the website, it's really informative. And yeah, appreciate your coming by. Thanks so much. We hope to see you guys here next week, at 'Conversations with!' And we hope some of you will be applying and coming here for early childhood education. Thanks again. Have a great day, guys. Bye, bye. 

Evan Franulovich  31:45  
'Conversations with!' is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps others discover the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube at Seattle Colleges Intl, that's Seattle Colleges Intl. And be sure to check out all of the shows here on 'Conversations with!' Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.