Susan Polojac: Guiding Apprentices in Pittsburgh

“Dr. Rae Ann Hirsh was one of my mentors,” Susan says. “I had her as a teacher when I studied early childhood education at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, and she ignited my passion for systems change in the early childhood field. She also became a colleague and close friend in 2020 when I joined her in starting the first registered apprenticeship program for early childhood educators in Pennsylvania. We both wanted to support educators by meeting them where they are, and I have carried on Rae Ann’s work since she passed away from cancer in 2022.”

Susan brings a long sense of commitment to her current role as director of the Rae Ann Hirsh Early Childhood Education Hub, which supports the apprenticeship program. “I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was small and always had great relationships with my teachers throughout high school, college and graduate school,” Susan recalls. “They led me to fall in love with the early childhood field, where I have worked for over 30 years.” During that time, Susan has held a wide range of roles in Head Start, state government and higher education. Most recently, she served at the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning as director of the Race to the Top grant to spur innovation and then preschool development federal grant director.

“Our apprenticeship program at Carlow University,” Susan says, “emerged from work we were doing at Race to the Top. We saw there was a need for higher education and child care centers to be on the same page and partner to move the early childhood workforce toward degree attainment. In our program, students can either earn a bachelor’s degree or a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™. If they choose to earn a CDA®, they automatically get college credit since we have articulation agreements with local community colleges that offer associate degrees in early childhood education. And we’ve had quite a few students who earn their CDA, go on for an associate degree and then return to Carlow for a bachelor’s degree.”

The keys to building these pathways for early childhood teachers are scholarships, free books—and a strong focus on mentorship, Susan explains. “Once you are accepted into the apprenticeship program, you automatically get a university mentor who meets with you every week to make sure you’re doing well in your courses and share information about the services that Carlow provides, including counseling, grief counseling, mental health support and academic tutoring.”

The apprenticeship students also have a coach who guides them through their courses and has regular chats with them about how the coursework applies to the real-world classroom. “For example,” Susan says, “I just finished teaching a course on family engagement, and one of the assignments was to write a script for students to use in calling parents. Typically, when a teacher calls a parent, it’s because the child has misbehaved or something bad has happened. But we wanted to flip the scenario around, and have the students think about positive things they could share with parents. We want to help them build relationships with parents because that will be part of their job as professionals in ECE.”

And the students receive guidance in fulfilling that role. “In this case,” Susan says, “the coaches provided some of parents’ likely responses to the scripts the students had written. Then the students talked about the assignment with their mentors, a discussion that expanded on what the students had learned in their course work.” And Carlow has taken additional steps to support students since the program began four years ago, as Susan explains.

“We have changed some of our coursework to make it even more relevant to the work our students do,” she says. “We have created a specific apprenticeship handbook and an evaluation procedure. We have added more classes in the evening and online because most of our students have to work until six in the evening. And we have added a writing course because we want the students to feel that they’re not just teachers in an early learning program. They’re early childhood professionals and scholar practitioners at Carlow University.”

There are many features of the program that encourage the students to pursue a degree, and Susan has captured them through the interviews that the program conducts. “It helps just being able to have a mentor to talk to if you ever have any problems. My mentor is extremely helpful, giving me what I need, the books, the funding, which is amazing, and she has helped me a lot. All members of the apprenticeship program have also helped me,” one student said. Another said, “There’s no pressure. There’s no stress. If you have difficulties and you need to step away from the program for a semester or so, all you have to do is talk to the staff, and they will help you figure it out.” It also helps that the program has a personal touch, as another student pointed out. “All my professors know my name. They know who I am, and they care about my progress and want to make sure I’m doing my best.”

And the program’s mentors have described the advances that the students have made. “A. has a better understanding of the importance of having spaces for different activities in her toddler room. She added some new and different ideas and items to her classroom based on what she learned in school,” one of the mentors said. “M. increased her support for play in the classroom. She has begun to apply knowledge she’s learned in class, especially classroom arrangement, to her practice,” according to another mentor. There’s also G. who has “become more aware of her stressors in the classroom and has taken active steps to adapt when needed to support the kids in the class as well as her own feelings.” And there’s H. who “has learned to be a better advocate for herself and the children in her care,” according to their mentors’ reports.

The students’ gain in knowledge has led them to serve children better, according to directors of child care centers who responded to surveys from the program. The students also gained degrees and credentials that allowed them to advance in their careers. According to the most recent survey, 228 students participated in the program and earned a CDA or credits toward a degree since the program’s inception. Of these 228 students, 22 succeeded in earning a bachelor’s degree, including one who especially stands out in Susan’s mind.

“Barbara had a clerical job at an early childhood center and children who were going to college,” Susan recalls. “She also dreamed of going to college, so she worked hard after joining the program four years ago. In addition, she took advantage of opportunities to advocate for the early childhood profession, and in the fall of 2021, she was awarded a Teach Plus Policy Fellowship, a selective, rigorous program for teachers who want to deepen their knowledge, expand their influence, and lead in shaping education policy and advocacy. She did a phenomenal job in the fellowship program, and last January, she was invited to go to Washington, DC, and attend some meetings at the White House. By August, she had earned her bachelor’s degree, as she had always dreamed she would. Now she’s an administrator at a child care center and a mentor for our program.”

Susan also has reminders of her own great mentor because two of Rae Ann Hirsh’s daughters still have a connection with Carlow University. “One is earning a doctorate in education,” Susan says, “and the other is an amazing graphic designer who has helped us with publications for our program.” And seeing them makes Susan think of the stirring role that Dr. Hirsh played in her career during the years they spent together in Pittsburgh.

Susan also draws inspiration from another great former resident of the city: Mr. Rogers. “He said, ‘If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person,’—words I love,” Susan explains. “I feel like they stand for much of the work that I have done for our students, and I hope the students feel the same way.”