CHARLENE WEBB immediately recognized opportunity when the Homewood, Pennsylvania YWCA’s early childhood care director where she works encouraged her to take advantage of PDO-sponsored higher education. With an Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education already under her belt, Charlene was able to seamlessly transfer her earned credits from the Community College of Allegheny County to Carlow University.

A PDO-sponsored apprentice for about the last year, Charlene expects to graduate in December 2022. “I always wanted to go back to school and this opportunity made that possible for me,” she said, adding, “I’ve learned so much, especially things related to STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) that can be applied to young children.”

Working with toddlers, Charlene applied some of her STEM course training to help children in her care to make “sandals” from cardboard. She has also learned to recognize when some children may need special education type of supports.

Charlene sets the academic achievement bar high for her four grandchildren and one great grandchild, as she currently holds (and intends to retain) her 4.0 GPA!