Lisa used the state scholarship to pay for the final semester of her associate degree and graduated in 2018. A few years later when she enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program, she knew she could rely on support from the scholarship again—this time from the very beginning. Lisa graduated in May 2024 from Eastern New Mexico University with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. Throughout her program, the ECECD scholarship covered all her tuition, fees, and even books.

Lisa is among more than 1,000 early childhood professionals who received an ECECD scholarship during the 2023-24 school year. The scholarship is for professionals who currently work in early childhood settings including child care, Head Start, PreK, Tribal early childhood programs, home visiting, early intervention (FIT), and more. Scholarship recipients are assigned to a support coach, who is their individual contact for any help they need with scholarship paperwork and processes.

Lisa is a Head Start teacher in Artesia, where her family has had ties to Head Start for three generations. She herself is a graduate of Head Start, where her dad was a custodian and her sister has worked as a teaching assistant. Lisa got involved with Head Start as a parent volunteer when her daughter enrolled there as a three-year-old, and moved up gradually from a volunteer to a substitute to a teaching assistant, and now a lead teacher. Her degrees, she said, have helped her qualify for more advanced positions within Head Start while also exposing her to knowledge that helps her in the classroom.

She said she was especially interested in her classes about bilingual education, and how to best support young children who are learning English alongside another language at home.

“I was a second language learner when I was growing up,” Lisa said, “so I wanted to give back, and see what I could do to help my Spanish-speaking ones learn English, and how I could benefit them in learning English and still keep their native language.”

Lisa’s classes helped her learn those skills, she said, and also gave her a stronger understanding of children’s brain development and how they learn to read. She’s planning to take a break from school for a year or two, but then head back for her master’s degree with a focus on early childhood special education.

Until then, Lisa’s an enthusiastic ambassador for the ECECD scholarship program. She mentions it to everyone she knows who is thinking about starting an early childhood degree, reminding them to apply at the beginning of their schooling before paying out-of-pocket or taking on student loans.

“I tell everybody else that wants to go to school,” she said.