Amanda Wilcox and Amy Van Schagen, Child Development Department, CSUSB

Today we have our friends from Cal State San Bernardino. Amanda Wilcox a faculty member for over 25 years and the Chair of the Department of Child Development and Amy Van Schagen, Associate Professor in the Child Development Department.

CSU San Bernardino Child Development webpage:
https://www.csusb.edu/child-development

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, and welcome back. This is Nancy Sherrod 

Ana  00:09

and Ana Garcia.  And thanks for tuning in to our Early Education and Development podcasts. Tomorrow's Readiness Starts Today.

Nancy  00:15

Each month, you can tune in to hear us chat with someone who has played an important role in the preschool to third grade initiatives. We'll also continue to share with you some of the awesome things we're doing here in the early education and development department at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools.

Ana  00:30

Today we have our friends from Cal State San Bernardino with us. Can you please introduce yourselves and share a little bit about your background and your current role at the university?

Amanda  00:40

Absolutely. Well, I guess I'm starting so my name is Amanda Wilcox, and I'm a faculty member at Cal State San Bernardino. I've been there for over 25 years, we'll just leave it at that. So before I came to Cal State, I was an early childhood teacher. So I started in college, I saw an ad for the infant toddler lab school there and thought that looks like fun, had no idea what I was doing. And then I was hooked. And then I realized you probably can't make a whole lot of money as a preschool teacher. So I thought, well, I'll do elementary school, and was a very unhappy elementary school teacher, because I like early childhood. So I just kept getting drawn back every time I was in a class, you know, can I do something related to early childhood? Do I have to focus on elementary school aged children? Could I do my paper on preschoolers? Could I do my paper on infants and toddlers? So I decided, well, maybe I could be a person who educates people who want to teach young children and got a bee in my bonnet and decided that maybe graduate school would be great. So I moved myself and my new husband to Indiana, and went to Purdue for seven very long years, and came out with my PhD so that I could teach at a four year university and got the job here at Cal State San Bernardino. And here we are 20 something years later, in our own department of child development. I'm the chair of that department. And among other things, we educate early childhood educators to go forth and work with children birth through age eight. And so I still have the same passion, but just a slightly different venue for making that, you know, that that goal a reality? No, that's kind of my little story in a nutshell. .

Nancy  02:36

Perfect! Your turn. All right.

Amy  02:39

I'm Amy Van Schagen. And I'm also a faculty in our Child Development Department at CSUSB. Go yoties. I have been there almost eight years, they've flown by. But prior to starting here, I was also an early childhood teacher. So got my Bachelor's in Human Development and Family Studies with a focus in early childhood. And it was a dual degree in special education as well. So I worked at our lab school on campus, and worked kind of in the different ages. So infant teacher realized that that might have not been a great fit, because I really missed having kids talk back. Yeah, and so then really found like my happy spot in the classroom with the with the twos, two and a half. So that really became my my favorite age. So I taught for about four and a half years. And I loved also getting to mentor lab students and student teachers. And so you know, that that kind of paired with the fact that, you know, there's an issue with wages in early childhood education and other aspects of inequities. And I really wanted to help kind of address those things in a different way. And so, went to grad school, got my masters and PhD. And then, you know, applied to lots of places and happily landed at CSUSB. And, and then, you know, eventually we evolved into our, our own department. So, I serve as our program director for our master's in child development. And I also serve as site not site supervisor, but faculty supervisor, for infant toddler lab school on campus.

Nancy  04:35

Okay, well, you just talked about a ton of pieces. And I've been looking forward to this podcast episode, because I work in the same department as Anna, and we have all these projects. And I know that we do work with you to ladies, but I don't know, part of the collaboration between us. And then I know you mentioned a lot of other initiatives that you're doing too. So let's start with maybe the key initiatives or projects that you're currently Lee mean right now and early ed maybe the ones that work alongside us, but then other ones you have that are growing? And I know that was a big question. Jumping into answering that one. First, 

Amy  05:08

I'm, I'm happy to kind of delve into it a little bit. So one of the initiatives that we're currently working on is the early childhood workforce pathways. And so kind of a part of that work also evolved from research that we did called barriers to bridges, and learning what kinds of barriers early childhood educators had to Accessing Higher Education. And so from that study, we kind of had multiple findings. And so when we had the opportunity to collaborate with building pathways from early childhood educators to, you know, higher education, something that we wanted to create was was easier access. So we have two certificate programs that are fully online. So one of our findings was that educators in the field need it to be flexible. So having an online having an asynchronous, so they can complete assignments, when it's convenient for them, having those courses attached to the child development permit. So being able to move out that permit ladder, from say, Master Teacher, or lead teacher to site supervisor. And then other things that the research talked about where things like wanting support kind of along the way, so not wanting to do it by yourself, which who can blame them? We like people, right? Yes, exactly. And so we have higher ed mentors that check in with the scholarship students in the certificate programs that are funded through the pathways grant. And so they're there to kind of be cheerleaders, but to also answer questions to help them through the process of thinking about what's my next step after I finished the certificate program to continue my education and my growth. And we also use cohort models for that. And then the last piece that's really critical was a provider's really said they needed support with technology. So they reported that they want more online classes, but then also weren't super efficacious about how to use online, wow, of course, materials, learning platforms, things like that. So we provide a technology workshop at the beginning, along with the orientation to help support those scholarship recipients, you know, as they begin their journey, onto the certificate programs.

Nancy  07:44

Have you seen a surge in the numbers that you have going through this? Is there is your enrollment growing and the people you're servicing and building into this workforce? Growing? 

Amy  07:54

Yes, so definitely, the number of applications that we get has grown a lot. So year over a year, this is our fourth cohort of students, we have seen a really large, you know, 60 plus applications for, you know, about 20 scholarships, per program. So it definitely has has continued to grow. 

Nancy  08:19

That's exciting. Yes, which we know workforce been talked about in the holly in one of our episodes, talking about workforce, and just the needs. And as we're growing with this UPK movement, more and more educators are needed at all the different levels.

Amy  08:31

Absolutely. And so then one of the other kind of initiatives, or two of the other initiatives that we have going on, is the research work. So racial equity in early childhood education. So initially, that was research that was done with, with early childhood educators and providers, so both center based as well as family childcare providers, looking at experiences of discrimination, racism, both at the system level, so things like wage differences, as well as kind of interpersonal aspects of discrimination, particularly for early childhood educators that identify as black Indigenous and People of Color. And so we've completed that research. And so now we're kind of in the next stages of, A trying to get funding, but be really wanting to use this research as a jumping off point to build out awareness, build out action plans, so that we can really address the discrimination that we found within the findings.

Nancy  09:39

 Wow, that's, that's exciting work. 

Amy  09:43

Right? It is, it's really important and it's gonna take a long time. 

Nancy  09:47

And it's at the heart of so many things that are out in education now and just a focus, a key focal point for so many groups and institutions and

Amanda  09:56

Yet my hope is that Amy starts another certificate program. I can also add in a few more things we're doing in terms of pathways. So we do have another certificate coming online, not the one, I'm hoping that Amy will develop racial equity, but we have one for folks who are in the community and teach in the elementary schools and have a multiple subjects credential. So it would be the 24 units, they need to be able to teach pk or tk in the public schools. So fingers crossed, if all goes well, we'll have our first cohort start later this summer. So we've worked kind of working our way through the regular process on campus. So we have that we have about four or five years ago, we started a plus two program at the Palm Desert campus. So in the state of California, there are associate's degrees, so you can earn an AA degree, or you can earn an associate degree for transfer. So if you decide to earn an associate degree for transfer, that means that you have said I want to go to a Cal State. And I'm planning to major in this. So make sure that I take what I need to at the community college so that I can seamlessly transfer transfer to a Cal State system. So there are two associate degrees for transfer that are related to child development. So one is early childhood education. The other is child and adolescent development. So we accept both. So whatever somebody wanted to focus on at the community college, they could come with their first two years done. And then we have a very seamless pathway for them to do the last two years with us. The other good part about that is as long as you do, reasonably in terms of grades, you're guaranteed admission to a Cal State. So if you went to a community college, and this is any, you know, all 150 community colleges in the state, and any one of the CSU campuses, you may not get into your first choice of campuses, because each CSU has what's called a geographic preference priority area. So like, you may not be able to go to SF State, if you choose that if you live down here, but you can absolutely come to us. And again, we're equipped for both of those

Nancy  12:19

our early

Amanda  12:21

childhood concentrations, so if you earned a bachelor's in that you would exit that program with your site supervisor permit. If you exit our master's program in child development, you would leave with a program director permit. So in addition to being you know, in the system of the community colleges were also tied to those Child Development permits. But that plus two program and where I was going with that is if you do your first two years at say College of the Desert, or any of the institutions out in the Palm Desert area, you could automatically transfer to Cal State and not have to leave that campus. So you wouldn't have to come here to this campus to complete those final two years, everything is offered on that Palm Desert campus we're in now very early conversations with the high desert. And we're hopeful that maybe either using Barstow or Victor Valleys facilities that we could offer our plus two there. So it would be a Cal State degree, it would be Cal State faculty who go out there and teach those classes. And we would just hopefully use their facilities, their classrooms to do that. So that you can earn a four year degree. I mean, we're already nicely aligned with the community colleges. But then we get past that location barrier that I know has been 

Nancy  13:42

That is huge, especially in some of our areas up in the high desert. They just can't get enough educators out there. And if we're taking the education to them to get them the permits and licensing. Wow.

Amy  13:57

We do and kind of along those lines, is the Early Childhood college fair. And so we actually just had our second one of this year and so first time we ever did, it was this year, in at Victor Valley Community College we collaborated with them. So just trying to build out that access so that the fair was basically an opportunity for all the higher ed's in the area to come together and it'd be a one stop shop to learn about the different, you know, early childhood programs at the community colleges at CSUSB. But then we also had you all there so as to be able to share about tuition reimbursement and other types of opportunities. But then we also have things like making your own flower bouquet and watercolors and making affirmation jars. And so wanting it to be a mix of getting all of this really important information and seeing our local higher ed It says we're a team, we're all in this together. And we just want to support early childhood educators and those going into fields working with children and families. And so it was, you know, those are just things that are also really exciting and amazing to get to have that interfacing with, with providers.

Nancy  15:18

And I love Amanda said something, when you're introducing yourself just talking about how you did early ed, you were there, and then you went to elementary, but what's not your happy place? It really is a different world. And I love and I'm going to speak to that because I left the elementary world as principal and landed in early at a little over a year ago. And I didn't know what I didn't know. And so the fact that you're doing these universities together working together to build this workforce and putting the permits and the licenses, and we do need to build, build, build this up, and there is the salary pieces. And there's all these very hot topics that are have been quiet, and I feel like they're getting voice and universities doing the work you guys are doing is getting it out there. And so that's, that's really exciting for me on this side of the table pieces. Awesome.

Amanda  16:05

Well, and I know this may seem counterintuitive, what I'm going to say right now. But the one thing that I really appreciate about our degree and our major at Cal State as well is we do prepare people to be early childhood educators if they want, yes, but we also prepare them to do anything that they want to do with children and families. And I think that's very empowering for people. Because you may change your mind along the way, you may find something that's a better fit. So we have people who go to social work and clinical counseling, and they do go K through 12. And they do go early childhood and sometimes their parent educators. And so I just really love that about our program. Yeah, that we're really giving students I think, the biggest bang for their buck, and, you know, preparing them for anything that they want to be and not pigeon holing them, which I think makes us an excellent choice as well

Nancy  16:57

a percent on that. Yes,

Ana  16:59

we're going to shift a little bit. So we want to know, what do you believe are the most pressing challenges facing early education today? And how are you addressing them through your work?

Amanda  17:10

Well, I say that pay has always been a tremendous problem. And I think that's kind of the obvious one, which trickles down to the quality of care that we provide for children, because we have so many issues with turnover. But I've always long thought that it's almost a bigger issue than that it's something more macro, because I think, partly because we're a female driven field. The folks who are sometimes attracted to our field. I think that it's we need to do more to advocate for ourselves as professionals. And I think that's, to me kind of a more overarching issue. And I think if we could come together in a different way, I was so excited when they authorized unions, for child care workers, I thought, yeah, that's the kind of thing we need to be doing, right, that establish ourselves as a profession with a voice. And I think we've long been kind of hiding in the shadows and a little bit quiet. And we're not advocating for ourselves for some of these things that are really important. So to me, that's anything I can do to professionalize the field. And I'm always telling my students like, remember, you know, you know, when you leave here, you have a degree, right, like you're a fully degreed human being go forth and tell people what you know, like, don't be afraid to say, hey, you know, I know you want to do it this way. But I happen to know, some things from my degree and the things that I've learned and, you know, be better advocates for ourselves, and then I think some of these other things are more likely to come to us. That's kind of my two cents there. .

Amy  18:42

Absolutely. So beautifully said. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely agree with what Mandy has shared, as, as much as as wages. And just, I think, like you said, at a macro level, right, there are systems of oppression in place, and when it is a field that is led by by women, and is predominantly a women run profession, that that we see any women of color and many women of color, that we see that, that that system of oppression has really perpetuated kind of these lower wages and not having a voice, right. And while they're also serving for folks to be able to go to their jobs, right. I mean, they're providing a critical need in society, in our community, for communities to be able to function and also providing enriching opportunities for young children when their brains are developing in such a critical period. And so like you said, The ability to kind of unionize, to be able to bring voice to the field and the the critical nature of it, I think is really, some of the important parts and the wages piece really has to, I think come from a larger system level, right? Having federal and state funding that's really geared towards acknowledging the skill and the amount of time that providers are putting in.

Amanda  20:32

I've always felt it's very unfair that public responsibility for the health and well being of young children starts when they're I mean, I guess now we're saying four. Yeah, but we still have a whole, you know, several years before, right. So that's never really been clear to me, why? Why do we quit at a certain rate, and she further

Nancy  20:49

Yeah, walking through those doors,

Amanda  20:51

that public commitment,

Nancy  20:53

I think that's what's exciting about UPK, the universal pre kindergarten with that TK, as it is making their more awareness, we're looking at these preschool teachers have been in the trenches, building things and understanding development way more than your average elementary aged teacher, which is why that go back and get your EC units is so important with that, that new, the new learning that teachers are sharing that are going down to get that ECE. They're like, Oh, I missed the boat on that one. So that's exciting. Let's let's put a face or a story to some of the pieces because you talked about initiatives, you've talked about partnerships, can you share with us a success story or an impactful outcome from some of the pieces you're doing? That kind of illustrates just the fun stuff that you're doing? And I know, that might be a hard question to ask you on the spot.

Amy  21:45

Yeah, let me let me go back in my mental Rolodex

Nancy  21:48

there a person who's you've got the pathways going through even this weekend, I know you had that piece this weekend. So was there a student there that talked about what came from that day or the energy, like even describe the energy of the day from the Saturday's event?

Amy  22:01

Yeah. So towards the end, I was at the registration table, kind of going back and forth. And a student that is currently at Victor Valley Community College came up. And she said, this event has been amazing, this has been the best event that I've ever been to. And I've learned so much, there's so much information. And then we got to talk more about kind of what she's interested in. And I think, you know, getting to hear that she had particular interest in special education as well, and then getting to share some of the courses that we offer at CSUSB. around that and talking to her about kind of the different degree programs that are available. And, you know, that was after she had already gone up and talked to everyone else. So I think that that that's definitely one of one of those moments, also getting to see folks brought their parents or they brought their children. And so getting to talk to, you know, an eight year old that was there with her mom and asking what she was interested in and talking about the fair, I think it's never too young to kind of talk about dreams and aspirations and, and higher education. 

Amanda  23:21

Yeah, it's funny when I'm, when Amy was saying her mental Rolodex, I was flipping back through like, all the students I've had over the years. And I think for me, that's a big part of it is, I mean, these are people that I am connected with on social media, a gentleman just came back and visited that I had when I was pregnant with my son who's 20 is doing exactly what he said, Yeah, doing exactly what he set out to do. And, you know, just watching the things that they've gone on to do, and many of them are in the early childhood field. And I always giggle when they come back and say what was that thing you said about that permit that I earned? Because you know, now I want to do early childhood. And I know you said something when I was there taking classes, how do I do that again? So for me, it's just that that, you know, continual connection and seeing people out in the community. And, you know, I always am just so pleased that pretty much any community college that you go to somebody, they're earned a Masters with us, and is teaching for them. And I think that's a great commentary on the impact that we're able to make in the community, that we're educating them to go out and educate the next group of folks coming down the line. And that's sort of a beautiful thing, I think. Rewarding.

Nancy  24:33

Yeah. So your work often involves collaboration with various stakeholders. Could you tell us about some of your most notable collaborative efforts and partnerships, that was a mouthful? Who are you working with outside of the community besides us here at San Bernardino, superintendent of schools. Tell us about some of those other partnerships you have out there?

Amanda  24:54

I can start from a very early one. So there you go. Amy is the faculty super Eyes are of the infant toddler lab school. But we moved into the building that we're in on campus again when my son was a small baby. So clearly everything dates back to around when he was born. And I was the one who opened the center, because we had space in the building. And if it were not for first five, and their generous donation because I kept having this chicken or the egg problem, I'm like, Okay, I need a director to open, but I need to open to pay a director. And as a faculty person, I'm qualified to be a director, but I don't have time. Yeah, in my other job to do that. So first five, generously funded our director for the first year, so that we were able to open our doors, and we now have been open since 2005. We've served countless numbers of children and families were any YC accredited, and that wouldn't have happened without the relationships that we have with First Five and being able to take advantage of community resources. And I, I hope that over the years that we've given back, you know, in as many ways as we've been given from that agency, but I think that was really the first time as a department that we collaborated with one of our current community partners. 

Ana  26:11

Awesome.

Amy  26:12

Yeah. And they are absolutely still an amazing community partner. So they funded the initial Reese research, funding to be able to get that off the ground, which was incredible. And we also work with them in the capacity quality start San Bernardino. So that's another collaborator is kind of that larger, you know, multi agency initiative. So with QSSB being able to collaborate with folks link CCRC. Yeah. And, you know, I think something that I have really appreciated about all of our community partners is that when we come together, we we all get to share kind of different layers of understanding about things and add to ideas to make them better, because we are coming from different places and levels of kind of interaction interactions with the field. So, I mean, I guess I haven't worked a lot with other counties. But I definitely think San Bernardino County has like one of the strongest collaborations across the state.

Nancy  27:30

And I hear that as you go to other counties and other groups where we get the networking  San Bernardino County has some amazing partnership. Yeah. Especially down here in early ed, where we're really groundbreaking with some pieces and the model across the state. 

Amy  27:46

Yes, yeah. And then one last one that I think has been really great is working with the local planning council, so LPC and the, the workforce subgroup, so you UPK

Nancy  28:02

mix delivery, they're still looking for people. So if you're interested in being a part of all of these great conversations, and this collaboration, mix delivery, go back a few episodes, you want to listen to that episode, because we would love to have some of our community members join that team.

Amanda  28:20

UPK is that meeting that is always on my calendar, and then some other chair duty come, it has to come off the calendars.

Nancy  28:32

Because you get to go, someone else can go, there's such great information happens. And it's such a nerdy space for all things early ed, when we get together, there's an energy and the energy behind the work moving forward of having a bigger voice for our earlier and, and having that through line that through line has been missing for so many years. That is I think we're at a place we're at this pivotal place where we're going to start seeing it happen more and more. That's my rainbows and unicorns and hopes, and we're gonna do that.

Ana  29:05

It's recorded, so

Nancy  29:08

everyone's gonna help us.

Ana  29:10

So Amanda and Amy, looking ahead, what do you see as the future of early education? And what are some challenges that need to be addressed moving forward that you think? 

Amanda  29:20

So, Again, I've been in this field for a very long time now. I mean, it's been over 30 years since I chose early childhood as  kind of my thing. And I think I feel both hopeful and a little demoralized sometimes, because I can tell you, we've been talking about pay for 30 years, and I'm sure they've been talking about that for a million years before I entered the field as well. So I still feel like that's something that we really need to figure out how we're going to make it happen. I just feel like that's something we haven't made a lot of progress in and that we could do a lot better and particularly for those folks who are out on the frontlines. I feel like something that It really has come a long way since at least I started in the field is the quality of care that we provide to children, or at least our understanding of what that could be and engaging in efforts collectively, both as, you know, local communities, state communities, national communities, and thinking about what's important and what little people need and the importance of being little, and how early childhood classrooms differ from K through 12. classrooms. So I feel like that's something that we have made progress I, you know, there's always more progress that can be made. So, like I said, I think I have both hopeful things and things that I still, you know, I think that professionalism, the turnover, I also think just the emotional health and well being of our caregivers who work with very young children is something that we really need to be mindful of and do better with as well. So, you know, much, much progress and much progress still to be made, which I guess is good, right? There's always something busy, right, right. Yeah. Yeah,

Amy  31:05

I agree. And I think that that's, they all kind of go hand in hand, right? Like, we have research that shows the importance of high quality care for young children and the impact that that has, right for years to come. We also have research that shows what it takes in a provider to be, you know, really creating those positive, nurturing, and supportive relationships with children that helps them learn and grow. And then we also have all this information around wages and other inequities. And we even have research that links the fact that wages impacts teachers that then impacts their interactions in the classroom. Right. They're all they're all connected pieces. And so I do think that if we are able to tackle the wages piece, that we will also see additional benefits to all of the other pieces, teachers mental health and well being their their burnout, things like that will improve, right, if they're being able to keep their lights on not having to worry about how they put food on their table. Yeah. You know, the fact that early childhood providers, some of them qualify for supports, you know, governmental support and assistance. That's they're not making enough to be able to adequately provide when they are providing themselves these amazing opportunities in the in their classrooms. One of the other challenges that we have is that both at a at a global level, but also more locally, many children are experiencing trauma. And so really having a resources, education opportunities, and things like that for teachers, but also, we're for parents and centers as a whole of how to provide trauma informed care, and that really all children can benefit from trauma informed practices and building a safe environment for them. And just that that's gonna continue, I think, to be a critical need given the state of, of everything within our world today. 

Amanda  33:26

It's funny, we really must have the same mindset, because I would like to mention trauma informed care very much. ,

Nancy  33:36

Well and so let's go to that. Is there anything else you want to make sure you share with our audience about your work or your passions or your vision for the future that we did not ask you, this is your opportunity to put your soapbox down and climb on it? Or pull out your megaphone for all the world to hear? You know, those last things that you want? I know, you've talked about that positive hope, and we've got those pieces, but anything else you want to share with our parents, educators, family childcare is preschool teachers, all of the above that are listening? 

Amanda  34:05

That's a lofty question is?

Amy  34:07

Well, I think one of the things I mean, so long as I can just Yes, say whatever. I just, I mean, for any early childhood providers that are listening, we see you and we appreciate all the time and effort that you put into our little people that are growing and you're you're providing them with such an important foundation and whether or not they remember you if you have them as an infant, that you have still made an impression and an impact on them that will carry with them their sense of safety, that's something that they will get to hold with them as long as as they are growing. So, so we see you, and we also believe in you. So if you have been hesitant about you know pursuing additional goals or or higher education or things like that, that we are here to support you. And we as in all the higher ed's that have early childhood degrees and child development, and you are doing great things, and you can continue to do those things that you aspire to do. And yeah, I just I'm, I'm grateful that I have colleagues and community partners that allow me to think about the rainbows and the unicorns while also tackling really big systemic issues like racism and discrimination and acknowledging that those are things that we have to continually bring top of mind and work to address.

Amanda  35:44

That was beautiful. 

Nancy  35:48

That was amazing. And that that is a fantastic way to kind of bring things to an end. If people have more questions. If you have further questions, and you want to know more, we're going to make sure we put something in our show notes. So check out our show notes. And we'll have a way for you to get in contact with your department, your services, pathways, all that fun stuff.

Amanda  36:08

We have a great website, we

Nancy  36:10

do just fantastic. Give a plug. Your plug, WW, well, you know, it oftentimes gets a lot of slashes, okay. And the show notes, like I said,

Amanda  36:21

Yeah, it's somewhere if you Google CSUSB child development, it will be number one, because I googled it 1000 times. And it would be that and

Nancy  36:29

it'll be in our show notes. So definitely check out our show notes.

Amy  36:32

And one additional plug to that website is if you go to the Student Resources, part of our child development page, we have something called the empowerment hub. And on that it was created all for early childhood educators that has stuff to help prepare for job interviews for higher education opportunities, looking for actual jobs. So links to places you can find early, early childhood jobs, things that are happening in the community, all sorts of really amazing resources.

Nancy  37:00

So that's a resource that we'll put in our show notes.

Ana  37:05

All right, Amy. And Amanda, we want to thank you for joining us today and sharing all this valuable information. We know our listeners will absolutely benefit from all the great pieces you shared with them today. Thank you so much.

Amy  37:17

Thank you. 

Nancy  37:19

Well, that's a wrap for another episode. We look forward to having you join us next month as we continue to pull in community partners that are helping us spread the word that tomorrow's readiness starts today.