Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education<\/a>, receiving a Certificate of Achievement for her work with YWCA Hamilton.<\/p>\nThe award honours Mohamed\u2019s deep commitment to inclusion for children with exceptional needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love motivating families and being there for them when they need it most \u2014 when they have faced challenges based on the needs of their children and are looking for quality child care that will provide the support they need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her role as Children\u2019s Services Manager at YWCA Hamilton, Mohamed works with the Ministry of Education, City of Hamilton and community partners to oversee various programs providing quality child care to the community.<\/p>\n
Despite her many responsibilities, Mohamed always makes time to engage with the children enrolled in YWCA Hamilton programs. During summer camps, you\u2019ll find her out on the basketball court or soccer field playing with the kids. A highlight for her is watching children enjoy each other\u2019s company and seeing educators take part in the fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing kids be independent and valued for who they are, that is the most rewarding aspect of my job,\u201d Mohamed said.<\/p>\n
Looking to build on her knowledge and experience, Mohamed began Brock\u2019s BECE program in September. She also holds an Early Childhood Education Diploma from Mohawk College.<\/p>\n
For Mohamed, the fully online delivery of the program was a game-changer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of us in the program are full-time educators, so meeting virtually allows us to expand our learning in a way that works for our schedules. We have lots of interaction even though we are virtual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mohamed aims to root her professional practice in theory and expand her knowledge with critical understanding of issues and trends in early care, enhancing her work and helping her to better support her team.<\/p>\n
Although science is a passion of Mohamed\u2019s, as the daughter of an ECE who helped with her mother\u2019s day care, her heart is with working with children. Through her studies, she has been able to combine her interests by exploring the science behind early childhood education.<\/p>\n
Another BECE course of particular interest to Mohamed is Indigenous Culture and Early Childhood Education. Deeply committed to truth and reconciliation, Mohamed is eager to learn more about Indigenous culture and embed this knowledge in community programming.<\/p>\n
Mohamed said her award was dedicated to everyone she has worked with in her professional journey, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been working hard to create a sense of belonging and well-being for the children; every ECE deserves an award like this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She hopes her recognition will help shape the public perception of ECE\u2019s and help them to be seen as educators.<\/p>\n
She also hopes the award will ignite further conversations about how educational settings can support children with exceptional needs to create a more inclusive future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just the start of my journey, I hope I can continue to inspire people and advocate for our profession, and for all children,\u201d Mohamed said.<\/p>\n
Sandra Della Porta, Associate Professor of Educational Studies and Director of the BECE program, said Mohamed\u2019s award rightfully brings appreciation to ECEs\u2019 imperative work with children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the heart and soul of children\u2019s worlds, biggest supporters of young families, and contribute significantly to the increase of women in the workforce,\u201d Della Porta said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brock Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (BECE) student Ala Mohamed wants to make sure that no child is left behind, advocating for children of all abilities and needs to be included and supported in their education and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":89071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,40,3319,1],"tags":[13058,7035,10034,98,11601],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89078,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89070\/revisions\/89078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}