Early Childhood Education Alumni

1984

Cindy Clifton is the Director of the Presbyterian Child Center in London, Ohio. Cindy received an ICS Degree in Child Day Care and has received 500 hours of inservice training in the last 18 years. Cindy was treasurer for HERO and Student Body while attending Tolles and had this to say about Tolles, "Tolles prepared me very well for the outside world. I learned to have self-confidence and set high expectations for myself". Cindy is married (Jim) and has two sons, Robert, 14 and Cory, 10.

1987

Amie Ross is an assistant teacher of young toddlers at Little Pioneers. Amie has been a member of NAEYC for 8 years and has 300+ hours of educational inservice. Amie has two sons, Trey who is 5 and 20 month old Tanner.

1993

Amy Jo Dodds, left, a 1993, graduate along with current student Tiffany Bowen, are employed at Creative Child Care Center in Columbus.Their director, Connie Martin, was the very first employer over 25 years ago to hire ECE graduates! Tiffany and Amy Jo work in the 2 ½ year old classroom.

1998

Carissa Ramey Meade, 1998 Early Childhood Education graduate, who attended Hilliard High School is pictured with 3 year old Alison Christman. Carissa is the lead teacher in the 3 year old classroom at Cypress Christian Preschool in Galloway, Ohio.While at Tolles, Carissa was honored with the Parents’ Choice Award during her junior year. Carissa wrote that the ECE program taught her a great deal about planning age appropriate lessons and helped her manage her time better. Carissa still uses her index box of lesson plans that she created while at Tolles!

2001

Annie Coil has been employed for the past three years as a Teacher’s Aide in the multi-handicapped class at London High School. Annie always possessed an innate ability to work with young people and has developed a sincere rapport with the students in her classroom.She is truly interested in their well-being. A 2001 graduate, Annie was the FCCLA Senior District Rep and attended the A+ Leadership Training while at TTC.

Elizabeth Potter has been employed as a Teacher’s Aide in the three to five year old classroom at the Madison County Department of Family and Children First for the past two and a half years. Liz has continued her in-service training, plus C.E.R.T. which taught her how to handle major disaster in her job, for example: how to escape a burning building. Lesson planning, writing index cards and the hands-on experience with children while at TTC proved to be valuable to Liz in her career.

Holly Shoemaker graduated from Tolles and Madison Plains in 2001. She has been employed at the Presbyterian Child are Center for the past seven months in the younger toddler class. Holly credits her education at Tolles for providing her with the knowledge she needs to be successfully employed.

2002

Jhonda (Hawk) Vance is the lead teacher in the 4 year old class at Children’s World on Avery Road. Jhonda started working there during her senior year in the School to Work program.She maintained an A/B average and excellent attendance in order to do this; additionally, Jhonda served as FCCLA President and went on to Regionally Rally to compete with her preschool project.

2003

Another TTC graduate can be found working at Cypress Christian Preschool in Galloway. Sarah Boyd earned her Vocational Certificate of Completion from Tolles in 2003 and graduated from West Jefferson High School. Sarah provides care and developmentally appropriate activities for infants. Here she is holding David Petry, an infant in her classroom.

Angie Bell has been employed at Children’s Learning Express in West Jefferson since the end of her junior year at Tolles. Angie is a member of the Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children and was awarded a scholarship to attend the conference last year. She is already looking forward to this Aprils' conference, as author David Pelzer is one of the keynote speakers. Angie credits her TTC English teacher, Ms. Annette Daniel, for her knowledge of Mr. Pelzer's work. Angie was FCCLA Vice-President, a member of Student Council and Student of the Month at TTC.

2004

One of several ECE graduates employed at Little School in the Prairie, Courtney Tharps works with the schoolagers. Courtney needs a lot of energy to keep up with that age group! Courtney says that her education at Tolles showed her the importance of using proper language skills when working with children and helped her learn what to expect from each age group of children and how to respond!

Kiddie Concepts in Hilliard has the benefit of 2004 Tolles and West Jefferson graduate Rachel Estep. An outstanding student while at Tolles, Rachel was a member of the National Vocational Technical Honor Society and was a Student of the Month. Rachel actually began her employment during her senior year in Early Childhood Education. This enabled Rachel to gain an education in her chosen career plus earn money, all at the same time!

Jessica Fout received her Certificate of Completion from Tolles and graduated from London High School in 2003. She is currently employed at Presbyterian Child CareCenter in London. Jessica’s director is a former TTC graduate too! Jessica said, “Tolles taught me how to work more effectively with children and helped me understand how children think.”