UC grad uses experience to help students amid pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, essential workers such as doctors, nurses, teachers, daycare and grocery store employees continued to maintain critical and vital operations in businesses.

Although each of these professions has experienced hardships related to the pandemic, they continue to serve families selflessly. For daycare staff, their dismay extended beyond not working with the children within their classroom. Many faced furloughs or layoffs due to state restrictions on capacity, daycare businesses closing, and an increasing concern for the welfare of children and their families. 

The DECA module assesses risk factors and screens for social and emotional risks in young children (Kaplanco, 2020). The assessment can begin with children as young as four weeks of age through elementary and lead to rectifying behavioral issues.

As children return to school and daycare from being socially distanced for multiple months, Mason believes that skills she learned in her program and through the DECA learning module will help her build the student's emotional intelligence and become re-acclimated to social settings. She has found that if a student is confident and can communicate their feelings, they become better learners.

Having earned her bachelor's, Mason is hopeful to have her classroom fully incorporate what she has learned and develop her students. As a non-traditional student who had to balance work, maintaining her own family while pursuing her education, Mason encourages adults who have the same circumstance to "stay the course" and know the faculty are always available if needed.