SFSU ECSE

Along with family member, Danielle Grayson, joint doctoral program students, Karina Du and Krystal Anderson, presented “Honoring Intersectional Identities of Families” at the 40th Annual International Division for Early Childhood Conference in New Orleans, LA in September 2024. We are proud of their work and partnership with families!

Image description: Karina Du (left), Danielle Grayson (middle), and Krystal Anderson (right) are smiling and standing in front of a projector in a conference room. Danielle is seen displaying in her hands two children’s books.

Last week, SF State’s ECSE program was well represented at the Annual DEC Conference in Minneapolis! Pictured here is one presentation with joint doctoral students Sara Ucar, Prince Estanislao and Karina Du, along with professors Drs. Amber Friesen and Maryssa Mitsch. The group presented on the perceptions of inclusion from interdisciplinary team members. Reach out if you want to hear more about this research project!

DEC is the Division for Early Childhood, part of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). You can find information here about the annual international conference: https://www.decconference.org

By day, Mary Yung, Ed.D., serves as the Executive Director of the San Mateo County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA). In the evenings, Mary serves as a lecturer for the ECSE program. She recently shared, “My connection with SFSU started as a seasoned regular preschool teacher wanting to learn about how to best support my preschoolers with significant disabilities back when California first tried to pilot Universal Preschool. While it’s taken more than 15 years to get to the point where are finally able to create space for all children to have access to public preschool programs, we are still not where we need to be. I am invested in supporting the field of early learning with supports for children with disabilities—it is the beginning of a long road toward ensuring that children with disabilities may eventually be full participants of their chosen communities.”

We are grateful for Mary’s contributions to the ECSE program and the greater early childhood community!

Flashback to last year’s Division for Early Childhood (DEC) international annual conference in Chicago. While we saw each other at the conference, it’s nice to run into people you know when you’re exploring the city at night! Pictured here is Maryssa Mitsch (ECSE program coordinator) and Karina Du and Krystal Anderson (ECSE joint doctoral students and lecturers). 🌃 🍕 ☂️ 🌬️

📣 Join us next Tuesday, July 18th 3-4pm on Zoom to learn all about the Project ARISE scholarship opportunity for students in ECSE and Social Work! 💻 Project ARISE stands for “Adversity and Resiliency Interventions for Social Emotional development in early childhood.” While continuing in their own ECSE or SW program, students get scholarships💰every semester in order to take shared courses, field experiences, supplemental learning opportunities, and ongoing mentorship around Social Emotional Learning and Inclsuion. We look forward to seeing you there! 🖍️💻🧩🫶

We are currently in the process of editing a forthcoming publication entitled Advancing Equity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Education to be published by IGI Global. 📚 💻🖍️🛝🧩

Our hope is that book project can provide a means to consider the ways in which early childhood education can advance equitable access and inclusion for all young children and their families, and to highlight ways in which this is being confronted within teacher preparation programs, teacher development, policy, and research. We hope to include chapters from individuals with a diverse range of expertise, including practicing early childhood educators and family members. We are also particularly interested in supporting authors who are under-represented in academic publishing, hold intersectional perspectives, and represent diverse perspectives including but not limited to those that identify as people of color, disabled, LGBTQIA+ and more.

Please visit IGI Call for Chapters webpage (bit.ly/advancingequityandinclusion) for more details regarding this publication and chapter proposal submissions. The due date for chapter proposals is September 30, 2023. 

Please feel free to contact us with any questions!

Amber Friesen, Ph.D. (she/her)
San Francisco State University 

Maryssa Mitsch, Ph.D. (she/her)
San Francisco State University 

Karina Du, M.A. (she/her) University at California, Berkeley & San Francisco State University

📣 Join us on this Monday, June 26th at 4:30pm to learn all about the Project ARISE scholarship opportunity for students in ECSE and Social Work! 💻 Project ARISE stands for “Adversity and Resiliency Interventions for Social Emotional development in early childhood.” While continuing in their own ECSE or SW program, students get scholarships every semester in order to take shared courses, field experiences, supplemental learning opportunities, and ongoing mentorship around Social Emotional Learning and Inclsuion. We look forward to seeing you there! 🖍️💻🧩🫶

After nearly 30 years of service to the ECSE program and the Dept of Special Education, our beloved Dr. Summer Hsia is retiring from SF State! While today is Summer’s last official day with the university, pictured is our ✨surprise✨ retirement party in honor of Summer after our last in-person spring meeting. Summer’s wisdom, kindness, and dedication will surely be missed! Here is to continuing to build on the work she has whole-heartedly put into the ECSE program and SPED Dept in a way that is uplifting, positive, and hopeful for years to come. Congratulations and well wishes, Dr. Hsia!!! 🐊🥳💜🥹

Happy Teacher Appreciation week to all of our current and future ECSE and EI professionals and teachers. We are sharing this image from our professional organization in recognition of this week. We know your efforts expand well beyond this week - without our workforce, EI and ECSE would not be what it is today! THANK YOU for all that you do each and every day! 💛🐊💜🖍️🥹

Second year doctoral student, Sara Burton Ucar (pictured far left), recently presented at AERA in Chicago. Along with mentoring professor Dr. Michelle V. Porsche from UCSF, they shard their paper titled, “Academic outcomes for youth with disabilities in juvenile court schools in California.” We are proud of Sara’s work and dedication to the field! Reach out to us if you have questions about SF State’s Joint Doctoral program with UC Berkeley! 🐊 🐻

Last week Prince Estanislao, MA, shared their work at SF State’s Annual Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase. Prince’s work is titled, “Trauma Informed Educational Practice: Reorganizing Our Thinking in Supporting Disabled Children.” Prince is in their 2nd year of the Joint Doctoral program with UC Berkeley and is also a SF State alum. Way to go, Prince! If you have any questions or want to learn more about this work, we encourage you to reach out! 🐻 🐊

Join us at with Project ARISE! An interdisciplinary training program between ECSE and where students get funding to support their education focusing on early childhood mental health and inclusion for young children with high-intensity social emotional needs and their families. Check out our website https://ecse.sfsu.edu/project-arise or reach out with questions!