WNMU Hosts Early Childhood Education Symposium
The New Mexico Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education Symposium was held on the Western New Mexico University campus on October 19, 2023. The symposium was created to share with policy makers, educational leaders and other interested stakeholders what it means for WNMU to be designated by the State Legislature as the NM Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education. The university received this legislative distinction in 2022 for having developed a full-service center that has been providing early childhood and family services for decades. WNMU provides the highest quality child care, an active research site, a family counseling center, professional development and numerous teacher preparation programs, and it integrates these early childhood services, which is what makes the center’s model unique. The symposium also provided a forum for discussing child wellbeing in New Mexico and how the various parts of the center put this integrative model of early...