"At Western, I have had a lot of opportunities to observe and get involved in my field before going into the workforce."
Bethany Griffith, Birth-Kindergarten Education Major
Where are our Graduates?
Our graduates work as kindergarten teachers, daycare and preschool instructors, Head Start and More-at-Four teachers, Early Interventionists, and Childhood Advocates.
Our goals include giving you the skills to meet children's social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs from birth to kindergarten in a variety of settings. Your teachers and mentors will be professionals from the fields of Counseling, Special Education, Early Childhood Education, and Elementary Education Programs.
Two Important Decisions for Undergraduate & Transfer Students
If you're an undergraduate or community college transfer student, you've a couple of important decisions to make before you get started. Undergraduate students will need to consider whether to pursue a professional education or early childhood course of study; transfer students will need to decide whether to complete the whole 44-hour core or transfer Liberal Studies credits course by course.
Residential, Distance, & Graduate Programs
We offer you the option of enrolling in our residential program or in the distance program. Both programs offer a birth-kindergarten minor and a B.S. degree with an early childhood concentration and a professional education concentration that leads to licensure. We base our admission and retention policies for the professional education concentration on the standards and guidelines of the State of North Carolina and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Additionally, we offer two graduate degrees, the M.A.T. and M.A.Ed., which are delivered through the residential program.
For more information on WCU's Birth-Kindergarten Program, please contact us with your questions. We look forward to hearing from you.