Meet The Participants

Hunger Mountain Children’s Center (HMCC) is a non for profit child care center organized and licensed in 1978 at the present location of 123 Main Street in Waterbury. Their Parent Handbook states, “Our mission is to provide high-quality child care in a nurturing and safe environment where children have endless opportunities to explore their world.” Hunger Mountain enjoys sponsoring the Apprenticeship Program, “This program is exactly what we want our teachers to be involved in and then become leaders themselves to help others achieve higher goals. We encourage every teacher employed by HMCC to always look for ways to further their education.” Hunger Mountain has two apprentice –mentor teams.

Apprentice Carol Ann Labbe began working at Hunger Mountain in 2007 as an assistant teacher. Previous to that she held a nanny position for about a year. She joined the Apprenticeship Program in June of 2008. She shares her thoughts on the program, “What first caught my eye about the apprenticeship program was (realizing) that there is help out there for those who want to better themselves in this field. This program also allows you to get help and advice in the work place.”

Mentor/Director Lynette Martin has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis. She is coaching Carol-Ann Labbe in her journey through the Program. She shares her thoughts about the experience of being a mentor, “I always learn so much more as a teacher or leader; trying to share something with someone else and seeing how they interpret it can be the strongest learning tool.”

Apprentice Ashley Atwood has been in the child care field since 2005. She was interested in the Apprenticeship Program for many reasons. “I see this as an extraordinary opportunity to further my education in Early Childhood Education. When I have graduated from this program, I hope to be able to take all that I have learned and convert my toddler classroom into an environment that will be an endless opportunity to explore their worlds as 3 year olds.” Ashley is working with Mentor Alice Boyer to reach her goals.

Mentor Alice Boyer has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Early Childhood Education from Johnson State College. She holds a Level P Provisional Licensure from the State of Vermont and has been a non-recurring child care director for 20 years before teaching preschool for Hunger Mountain. She supports apprentice Ashley Atwood and writes, “This is an opportunity for (the both us) to improve ourselves with new and better ideas and to reflect that new knowledge in our classrooms. This will bring a better classroom environment which will help the children to learn. This also brings better ways to communicate with parents. It is a win -win situation.”

Vermont Child Care Industry & Careers Council. All rights reserved.
Revised: 6/29/10