This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
11/30/2022 03:59 PMNicole Ferrigno says she always wanted to be a teacher.
“I was very into elementary [education] and seeing the comprehension aspect of things. [Children] not really learning how to read, but applying what they’ve learned and kind of figuring out the world around them,” Nicole says. “Applying all of their foundational skills and seeing what they can do is where I loved being.”
Even after graduating from St. Bernadette’s School in New Haven to Sacred Heart Academy, she volunteered at her former elementary school and later made a formal return there with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. Afterward, she took her teaching to Amistad Academy in New Haven.
Nicole says she became more interested in early childhood education after becoming a mother in 2017. While she had not considered that avenue before, her desire to see the growth of her son influenced her to research the best methods for raising newborn children. Motherhood and her previous career in elementary education prepared her for co-founding the Old Stone Village Childcare Center in 2019, where she is currently its director.
“I was teaching, and then I decided to take a year off; I had my son. During the year off, I met Louise Ward, and she wanted to open up a daycare down here,” says Nicole, who was initially hesitant to join Ward in creating the Old Stone Village, wanting more time to spend with her newborn son. But she was convinced.
“She’s like, ‘Yeah, but I hear such wonderful things about you. You do so much with the community and everything.’”
Part of what attracted Nicole to establishing the Village was that it was not to be the typical daycare center, but rather one that was more suitable to her background in education.
“We are not run like a traditional daycare center. We’re more like pre-preschool. It’s very structured," Nicole explains. "I’ve been in teaching for over 15 years now, and I think that kids thrive off of structure. Our infants don’t, but once they hit our younger toddler room, they have a very structured, rigorous day of fun content. Everything is hands-on. There’s a lot of open and dramatic play in addition to it.”
The pair eventually opened the Village Childcare Center in September 2019, compiling their application for its establishment into a large booklet that took five to six hours of work a day for four months during the preceding summer. While the Center was inevitably forced to close in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, that did not prevent Nicole and her colleagues from continuing to be involved with their early learner’s education.
“While we were closed, we kept in communication with all our families, we would drop off things at their house for their kids to do. During Easter, I dressed up as the bunny and we went to their houses and did a little dance,” Nicole says.
Whether in the midst of a pandemic or not, Nicole continues to maintain the necessary upkeep of consistent and transparent communication with the parents of Old Stone’s learners. This practice, which began during COVID, involves posting video and photographic overviews of their children’s day on the Center’s Instagram account. This year, the Village received an award for second-best education center of its kind in the shoreline area, an achievement Nicole partly credits to this kind of method.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and we want to be a part of that family’s village. We are almost borderline family with every single child and family who ever entered our center," she says. "It’s a team effort. You can’t have teachers teach and the parents have no involvement.”
As the leader of that literal "Village," witnessing the intellectual growth of the children she educates, from their earliest learning experience to the next, is one of the greatest joys Nicole gets during her day at Old Stone, helping to achieve those small but promising steps they make along the way.
“Being able to see them from their first steps to them completing math, knowing their alphabet now, and knowing how to find their name. Everything is a teaching moment with this age.”
Their social development is another wonderful sight to behold for Nicole, seeing the first friendships of their lives blossom from just after their entrance into the world to their first-ever graduation. It’s not always easy for Nicole and other Village staff to see the ending of that stage
“A lot of our kids, once they're here and infants, they don’t leave until they're three. They are with the same kids from when they’re six-weeks-old all the way through three years. Watching them grow and change every year, and get closer and closer. Last year was really difficult to say goodbye to them because we were with them for so long.”
Philosophically, Nicole adheres to the overarching principle of “leading with love” in supporting the social and intellectual growth and development of Village learners. Especially for children who have not been away from their home and their parents.
“The whole general climate of this building is it's a home away from home. I think first building their trust, so they trust you, and if they can depend on you to figure out what is happening. We have a lot of kids who never left their parents before. [It’s about] building those relationships with them, so that if they are upset, they go to you,” Nicole says.
As director of the Village, Nicole is almost never in her main office, instead being in the three rooms at the center all day, prepping the agendas for all classes, and selecting the weekly theme for their math and science lessons.
“I do all the planning for the toddlers, all the prepping for the materials, and then I review it with the teachers, and then the teachers facilitate it,” Nicole says. “Every week is a certain theme, and every day builds off that theme. There’s also a sensory bin that goes with that theme. It can focus on a scientific concept, so if we’re learning about animals and life cycles, it would be feeding an animal or watching animals. Things that connect [to] what they’re doing that’s hands-on.”
Looking towards the future, Nicole sees herself remaining at the Village to continue fostering the growth of the youngest people in East Haven, with the strength and community of the First Congregational Church as a whole.
“This building has been amazing. From the church members to the early learning center upstairs, we do a lot of collaboration together with everyone. It’s a very happy place.”
To nominate someone as Person of the Week, email Aaron Rubin at a.rubin@shorepublishing.com.