A conversation with Ilene Rosenthal and Eugene Narciso from Footsteps to Brilliance

In this episode, we are excited to be sitting down with Footsteps to Brilliance Chief Officer, Eugene Narciso and their CEO, Ileen Rosenthal.

Footsteps to Brilliance for San Bernardino County
https://www.footsteps2brilliance.com/sanbernardinocounty/

Early Education and Development webpage:
https://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/index.php/en/ess-2019/early-education-and-development

Music by lemonmusicstudio from Pixabay - Where the Light Is

Transcript

Nancy  00:06

Hello, everyone, this is Nancy Sherod and

Ana  00:09

Ana Garcia and we welcome you to our Early Education and Development podcasts Tomorrow's Readiness Starts Today.

Nancy  00:15

Each month we'll introduce you to someone who is playing an important role in the preschool to third grade initiatives. We'll fill you in on some of the key topics that impact learning environments for our littlest learners, and share with you some of the awesome things we're doing here in the early education and development department at the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

Ana  00:34

F or this episode, we are excited to be sitting down with Footsteps to Brilliance chief officer Eugene, Narciso and their CEO, Eileen Rosenthal. Thanks for being here today.

Ileen  00:35

We're so delighted to be here. Ana and Nancy, thank you so much for having us.

Eugene  00:50

Looking forward to today. 

Ana  00:52

Awesome. Before we jump into all things, footsteps, or brilliance, can you both share a little bit about your journey? And what led you to be in your current positions at Footsteps to Brilliance?

Ileen  01:02

Absolutely. Ana, did you know that there is research that says that nearly half of the children in the United States are entering kindergarten, one two or three years behind where they should be? Wow, wow. Isn't that amazing. And if that happens, the research goes further, it says 88% of this children may never catch up. Now, what that means is that there's the possibility that the entire trajectory of a child's life gets determined by age five.

Nancy  01:37

Crazy, that's why we're in our business. Right?

Ileen  01:39

That was crazy. When we read that Eugene and I said, we have got to do something to remedy that. And what the research tells us is that why are children behind? It's because they weren't exposed to books to songs to vocabulary that they needed, so that they could build those brain synapses at a critical phase of brain development. So we need that knew that we needed to get resources into the hands of families and children, so that that never happened again. And that was the basis for Footsteps to Brilliance.

Nancy  02:20

I love that. While our county also agrees with that. years ago, we started a vision, Vision to Read as a county wide initiative and our superintendent talked about that the last episode, he really talked about how it's focusing on attention to the importance of reading. It's highlighting literacy related programs. You know, it's really addressing not 50% of our nation unemployed are illiterate. And to capitalize on that 57% of our San Bernardino County third graders do not meet that ELA literacy standard. So I know as part of that collaborative as we started Vision to Read one of the first partners was Footsteps to Brilliance. Can you tell me a little bit about the data that you have collected that shows the impact they're making on early education for us here in San Bernardino.

Eugene  03:06

Nancy has been phenomenal. In fact, in San Bernardino, kids have read over 3 billion words. Did you know that they've read over 7 million books. I mean, this is in the span of just a couple of years and the impact in other districts is similar as well. So districts that have been using Footsteps to Brilliance 93% of their students have become kindergarten ready. And for ELL students English language learners, we can see an acceleration as high as 168%. So we're really transforming education with what we're trying to do with these students.

03:42

If I could just add, we'd love the Vision to Read initiative. This is the initiative of San Bernardino County that creates a collective impact model to get the resources and the services to every child in the county. It is really innovative, and it is really revolutionising the way that children enter kindergarten. When we spoke with Superintendent Ted Alejandre, he really was interested in making sure that every parent, even before they enrolled in schools, had the resources and the services needed to succeed. And because we have a digital platform that could provide 1000s of books, songs and games in both English and Spanish, to everybody in the district. We worked with Superintendent Alejandre. With SBCSS with First Five, with Headstart with Children's Fund with all of these different partners so that we could reach parents and give them the resources, the services to succeed with their children. And the thing about the platform the Footsteps to Brilliance platform is that a parent can access these books songs and educational games on their cell phones and their tablets. On a traditional computer, it doesn't matter. It's device agnostic. And that's why superintendent Alejandre has been able to scale this throughout the community. 

Ana  05:17

Fantastic. So thank you both for all that grade data. So now, can you tell us what does it look like when a child logs in? What do they see?

Eugene  05:25

Ana we kept the child in mind, we wanted it to be super fun. So when a child logs in, it's as if they're playing games, but it's actually educational activities, songs, lessons that are both in English. And in Spanish, there's lots of interactivity, so that the child feels like they're interacting, and they get immediate feedback. They're able to read books and sing songs that are both in English and in Spanish. So there might be some songs that are from their native country, something that their parents might recognize, and we wanted that connection to happen. We use gaming as our pedagogical vehicle. In other words, we just wanted to make sure that even if the kids feel like they were playing with games, that it was really sound educational practices that they were experiencing. 

Ana  06:18

Awesome.

Nancy  06:19

So thanks for sharing Eugene, what it looks like, because I think our listeners can now visualize it and see it and are getting excited. But I'm excited because we are using Footsteps to Brilliance with some great projects in early education and development. Can you share a little bit about a couple of those projects that we're teaming with you for?

06:36

Oh, absolutely, Nancy, let me tell you about one that we're really really excited about. And that is the Learn with Me TV series that we're doing with San Bernardino County, and with  KVCR, a PBS station. And with Footsteps to Brilliance, this is going to be revolutionary, because it's going to be the first time ever, that children and their parents can see a TV program 15 minutes of it's going to be an English 15 minutes of it's going to be in Spanish. And then after seeing the program, they can actually interact with the books and get songs and games that go with it. So that TV is no longer a passive experience, it actually makes it a very active experience. And parents and students can really see their children progress. We're very excited about this partnership,

Nancy  07:34

we are excited to and next month, our episodes going to be all about that partnership, and what the launch is going to look like. You're going to want to listen to next month's episode everybody because we are doing fun stuff with Footsteps to Brilliance and KVCR are the episodes are coming very, very soon to your local PBS station. So you're gonna want to check that out. You know, another fun project that I know you both know, is our Love for Literacy. And can you share a little bit about how we're using it for Love for Literacy, how is Footsteps to Brilliance working with Love for Literacy, as part of our Vision to Read initiative here in the county.

Eugene  08:08

I love the Love for Literacy project. Because what we're trying to do is really for the incarcerated parents give an opportunity for them to be with their child and unite them with literacy, and so that they could really have a moment with each other that is precious, and that the child feels like they're still connected with their parents.

Ileen  08:32

It's one of the most moving things that I've seen, because when the parents and the children see each other, they get an opportunity to really converse and use literacy as a way of bonding. And in Footsteps to Brilliance, they can write their own stories. So they can actually use the platform to tell about their lives, both the parents to the children and the children to the parents. We love the fact that San Bernardino County and the sheriff, the superintendent of schools, and the sheriff came together to make sure that they're giving this opportunity to parents and their children. It's going to make a big difference for the future of both, both of them in the bonding.

Nancy  09:15

I agree. It's one of my favorite projects. And there's nothing better than seeing the inmates sitting alongside their young child playing on the platform playing games going back and forth between the Spanish and the English. We have a two and a half year old that is just eating up every minute on her iPad with her mom singing and recording they love that they can record themselves. That's a ton of fun.

Ileen  09:37

That moves us thank you for sharing that.

Ana  09:39

So do you have a hope or vision for early education and those who support our young learners.

Ileen  09:44

So our hope is that by leveling the playing field, all children have the ability to succeed and thrive in our society. That's what footsteps do brilliance was started to make sure giving every child  the right beginning, and therefore the right trajectory in their life.

10:05

Ana consider it consider this question. What do you have 90% of all kids who entered kindergarten ready to learn? I mean, if we if we could solve just that question, it would change our future and what we thought about education and its trajectory forever. And so that's my hope for the future.

Nancy  10:26

Wow, that gave me goosebumps complete response. I love that both of you. Thank you for sharing that. So we've talked a lot about this. There's a lot of information, we've painted a picture. Everybody needs to know that if your child is from zero to eight years old, and they live in San Bernardino County, they can have access to this for free. Superintendent Alejandra has made this an initiative and he wants it in the hands of every child out there. So Eugene, how do we get there? What do we do? How do our listeners find a way to get their students onto this extremely important platform?

11:02

Nancy's really simple. We actually built a website just for San Bernardino. And so any families, teachers, leaders, childcare providers can enroll onto the Footsteps to Brilliance app by going on to FootstepsToBrilliance.com/SanBernardinoCounty. And then from there, it'll give you instructions, simple instructions, both in English and in Spanish, in terms of how to enroll so any family who lives in the San Bernardino County can have it for free.

Nancy  11:36

Don't panic if you didn't get that web address, because it will be in the summary description of this episode. So you'll be able to go there and get that so you can get right to that page. And you can find it on our cradle to career San Bernardino County page that we shared last episode. Well, we just want to take a moment to say thank you, Eugene, and Eileen for being with us today. We know our listeners benefited from all of the great information you shared from the data to the platform, and all the great message and energy we thank you for being here today.

Ileen  12:06

Thank you so much for having us.

Eugene  12:08

Thank you so much.

Ana  12:10

And to our listeners join us next month when will will be sitting with one of our own coordinators Denise Cates-Darnell, and one of our partners Lillian Vasquez from KVCR, Together alongside footsteps are brilliant. They're working towards the launch of a transmedia television project entitled, Learn with Me coming soon to your local PBS station.

Nancy  12:29

We promise this is an episode you won't want to miss. Thanks to all of you for listening and we hope to have you tune in next month when we continue to share the message that tomorrow's readiness starts today.