GYO participant Gina performed “A Winner in You” at her graduation ceremony. “I’ve been waiting years to sing this song,” she said.

Finding the Winner in You Through GYO

At her graduation, participant Gina told us, "There's a song called A Winner in You. And it's been taking me three years to sing this song. I never knew when I was going to sing it."

Grow Your Own at the Kennedy Children’s Center has two goals. We are committed to staffing New York City’s early childhood classrooms with well-trained, culturally-competent, and committed educators to give students the quality education that they deserve.

At the same time, we want to strengthen the low-income communities where these students live by investing in adults who have the passion, but have not had the the opportunity, to create a lifelong career in education.

In six short weeks, GYO provides the clinical training, professional development, and hands-on experience that people need to launch their career in education, at no cost to them. Once participants attain their teacher assistant certification they are poised to go far.

The Grow Your Own program has reminded Gina and many other amazing people that they are winners. Thanks to the training provided by GYO, now they can help hundreds of young children with special needs to feel like winners, too. We are grateful to Gina for sharing her song, and her passion for her work!