Grad student lands prestigious Emerging Leaders Fellowship

Date released: 08/12/04

SAN MARCOS – Jacqueline Taylor, a graduate student at Texas State University-San Marcos, has been named a Fellow in the Children’s Defense Fund’s prestigious Emerging Leaders Fellowship Project.

Taylor is a child care specialist with the Fund for Child Care Excellence in Austin, which provides pre-service training for people entering child care industry. When she’s not writing grant proposals, working in the field or mentoring, she is working towards her masters in Family and Child Studies in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

“ On the national level, the Children’s Defense Fun is a well-respected organization, so I wasn’t expecting or counting on being accepted,” Taylor said. “I know I was one of 36 applicants they accepted, so I was very honored when it came through.”

The 2004 class of fellows will gather for training this October at Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee. The four-day conference will include leadership development and enhancement, advocacy skill building, exploration of past and current early childhood policies, and strategy about how to frame children's issues for policymakers and the public. The fellows bring and share rich racial, ethnic and community backgrounds.

“What I’m hoping is that I’ll gain specific skills in child advocacy. They asked for a specific area of interest, and I chose to focus on research and research-based initiatives,” Taylor said. “I plan to learn some additional skills to bring back to San Marcos and Central Texas.”
The 2004 fellowship class represents twenty-four states and joins an active, ongoing network of more than 170 fellows. Fellows represent local, state, and national children’s advocacy and research organizations, statewide and local Head Start programs, child care resource and referral networks and programs, among others.

The Emerging Leaders Fellowship Project is a unique opportunity that incorporates training, networking, and technical assistance activities to provide child care, early education, and school-age care activists the information, support, and resources they need to be successful agents of change. The Project seeks to expand and enhance the leadership capacity of advocates, and foster the development of new strategies for improving child care, early education and school-age care policies.

For further information on the Children’s Defense Fund, visit http://www.childrensdefense.org/ Watch web site at http://www.texaswatch.geo.txstate.edu.