Shown are the firs recipients of the CDA Scholarships. In front from left are Carrie Fry-Miller, nstructor; Corissa Kneppler, Liberty Marsillett, Nekiana Hamilton and Hannah Bencze, scholarship recipients. Shown in baack are Sherry Searles, LaunchPad director; Ben
Barkey, principal, Warsaw Area Career Center; Alex Hall, vice president of programs, Kosciusko County Community Foundation and Rob Parker, president and CEO, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. Photo provided by Kosciusko County Community Foundation.

News Release

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Community Foundation received a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., to support the learning and development of very young children, specifically infants to three-year-olds.

Using LEI’s grant dollars, the Community Foundation partnered with LaunchPad on a number of projects and initiatives aimed at increasing access to high quality, safe child care and early learning for zero to three-year-olds. Recognizing that one of the barriers to child care and early learning is that there are not enough qualified professionals in the field, LaunchPad offers scholarships for those who are pursuing their Child Development Associate. A CDA credential helps prepare a person to work in early childhood education and to meet children’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth needs.

“The CDA credential is the most widely recognized credential in early childhood education,” said Sherry Searles, LaunchPad Child Care & Early Learning Coalition Director. The CDA is based on a core set of competency standards that guide early childhood professionals toward becoming qualified educators of young children. High school students complete four early childhood classes and have 480 hours of classroom experience to complete the course.

The first recipients of the CDA scholarships are Corissa Kneppler, Liberty Marsillett, Nekiana Hamilton, and Hannah Bencze.

Kneppler, a student at Wawasee Schools, has been placed at Wawasee Early Learning for her internship. Marsillett, Hamilton and Bencze, students at Warsaw Schools, have been placed at Head Start for their internships.

For further information about the CDA scholarships, contact Searles at (574) 267-6311.