Hinesburg Resident Earns Early Education Award
Jen Olson receives the Emerging Leader Award
The Hinesburg Record
Hinesburg’s Jen Olson received the Emerging Leader Award handed out this fall by the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC). The award recognizes an individual who has shown significant leadership development over their career to date and inspired others to positively affect children, families, and the early childhood education community.
Jen Olson, a Co-teaching Director at Quarry Hill School in Middlebury, is a passionate early childhood educator who’s been teaching for over 17 years. Jen deeply believes that scaffolding learning opportunities for young children is the most important work we can do to both honor their innate curiosity and prepare them to be engaged citizens in the world.
Jen holds a Vermont Teaching License, a B.S. in Early Childhood Education and a M.Ed in Educational Leadership. A strong advocate for ECE, she was a member of the early childhood educator led task force working to advance early childhood education as a profession in Vermont. She is also a graduate of the Snelling Center for Government’s Early Childhood Leadership Institute. To read a 2024 commentary she wrote about her work, click here.
Jen lives in Hinesburg with her husband and their 3 year old son.
In addition to Olson’s award, VTAEYC presented awards that recognize excellence and advocacy among individuals at all career stages who are working both within and in support of early childhood education. The awardees are:
Early Childhood Educator of the Year: Jen Ricker, Brattleboro
Distinguished Service Award: Christina Nelson, North Troy
Outstanding Member Award: Alexandria Whitcomb, Graniteville
Student of the Year Award: Hannah Woods, Bennington
Children’s Champion Awards:
Senator Alison Clarkson, Woodstock
Senator Becca White, White River Junction
Senator Brian Collamore, Rutland
VTAEYC advances excellence and equity in early childhood education as the state’s largest membership organization for early childhood educators and is the state affiliate of NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Formed 50 years ago by a grassroots effort and now with more than 500 members, VTAEYC provides advocacy, workforce development, professional development, and other resources to support early childhood educators. VTAEYC works to strengthen today’s workforce and build a more equitable early childhood education system for the future. Learn more at vtaeyc.org.
Congratulations, Jen. Such meaningful work for Vermont communities and their children by you and all your peers in early childhood education. I hope HR readers will also read the link to your commentary in Digger.
Regards, Rob Bast (Board Chair, Snelling Center for Government)