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Press Releases 2005
CONTACT: Cathy Summa, Director, Marketing & Communications
(831) 479-6158
casumma [at] cabrillo.edu
May 17, 2005
Founder of Cabrillo College Children's Center Retires
Edwards leaves community legacy of family-centered care
APTOS,
"Julie has given fine leadership over the years,” said Bob Swenson, Cabrillo founding president. She has been there during some difficult times and was responsible for fund-raising efforts to make sure the center could accommodate as many children as they could.”
During her tenure, which included 22 years as chair of the Early Childhood Education Department, Edwards launched programs for bilingual ECE certification, Foster Parent Education, and Parent Outreach, and co-founded the Rosmarie Greiner Children’s Peace Education Library. She also founded the Occupational Council and co-founded the Cabrillo Women’s Studies program and the Cabrillo College Teachers’ Union and developed an anti-bias curriculum that has been adopted throughout the state.
"Julie was instrumental in setting the philosophy for the ECE program, teaching thousands of parents and ECE students,” said Claire Biancalana, vice president of Instruction. “She has a gift for making children come alive for students.”
It was, however, her ability to inspire others in the field to find their own passion and to believe in themselves that is one of her greatest legacies, say colleagues.
She encouraged others to make social change by strengthening families and children through education, said Nancy K. Brown, current department chair. Brown, once a student of Edwards, took over the department seat from Edwards in 2002. “Julie has a torch she passes on,” Brown said. “She strongly believes that you take action on what you believe in. People have found their voice with her.”
As a mentor, Edwards taught teachers to have high expectations for students, said Janis Keyser, an ECE faculty member. “I learned from her that teaching is so much about the relationship with students. There’s a way that she nurtures the passion and helps teachers learn how to teach from that passion.”
The ECE department, which had just one other instructor when Edwards started, now has four full-time teachers and 20 part-time teachers for about 600 ECE majors. The center serves more than 100 children in 85 families. It is one of five infant-toddler care demonstration programs in California.
In 1971, Edwards launched the first child care center on the Central Coast in the old Sesnon carriage house, a remodeled redwood barn with a single sink in the director’s office. Furnished with cast-offs, the Center cared for 35 children in a natural woods setting. The garden was decorated with sculptures created by Cabrillo art classes and bales of hay.
"There was a great deal of campus passion for this,” Edwards recalled.
Although the center has evolved from a community care center to one that serves primarily students, faculty and staff, some things have not changed. From day one, Edwards espoused the relationship-based social learning philosophy that children have innate intelligence and goodness and their parents must be also supported. The center’s commitment is to the entire family, not only the child.
"If you care about kids, you have to care about their parents,” Edwards said. The department has also focused on building community to foster a sense of belonging and enrich family stability.
"Many programs focus on reading or making sure the kids are healthy or the focus on parent education, or curriculum,” Edwards said. “We care about all those things but our focus has been on how to build a sense of community so people feel a mutual sense of connection and responsibility to each other.”
Rheta Negrete-Karwin, coordinator of the Infant Toddler Program at UC-Santa Cruz, credits Edwards with lighting the way for her. “I sat in her class and I realized I had an opportunity to really do some important work with children and families and I wanted to be a part of that. Julie’s passion ignited that in me. She is a person that speaks to the heart of the issues and speaks very wisely. She has been a true advocate for families and teachers.”
The daughter of a union organizer and activist and author Tillie Olsen, Edwards was the first generation to go to college.
"My family believed in the power of education to transform people’s lives, that educating people and organizing them, helping people to find their own power, was the highest calling people could have,” Edwards said. “That was the message of my family. I didn’t fall far from the tree.”
Edwards said she will continue her activism in the field. She is currently serving as a trustee of the governing board of The National Association for the Education of Young Children.
"There’s never been a more critical time for the profession than now,” she said.
Edwards is married to Cabrillo anthropology instructor Rob Edwards and the mother of two children and several foster children. She says she’s probably spent more time at the ECE Department or the Children’s Center than she has in any home. “It’s hard to leave. This has been a home, a place of growing up.”
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Students and community members are invited to contribute one-page stories of their memories with Julie, their lessons, and/or best wishes for Julie in retirement. Please send photos, too. Submissions can be sent to Cabrillo College, Early Childhood Education Department, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA 95003, Attention: Therese Doherty, or to thdohert [at] cabrillo.edu. For information, call (831) 479-6354
The Cabrillo College Foundation is also accepting donations in Julie’s honor for a Peace Education Library Endowment to continue her work collecting exceptional books for young children. Donations may be sent to: Cabrillo College Foundation, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA 95003. For information, call (831) 479-6338.
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