Her Story
About Sunita
I have always been interested in wanting to work with children. Even in elementary school, I told my parents I want to be a teacher. When I went to college, I intended to become an elementary education teacher, but then I discovered this early learning kindergarten readiness program working with kids in Head Starts. It was a volunteer and paid student position, and I fell in love with the whole concept of early education. I continued this throughout college, picking up more hours whenever I had free time because I loved teaching them and getting to know how their brain worked. After college in Wisconsin, I moved back to Minneapolis and worked as support staff at Primrose Edina location during COVID. Then I became an infant teacher at Mount Olivet Day Services for 2 years through my family church. Unfortunately, they closed down, and I realized I had learned as much as I could as a teaching staff. My next goal was to grow into how I can get more families and more engagement with families, not just in the classroom but overall in the center. When the assistant director position opened up here at YWCA, I applied, did a couple interviews, and I've been here since then. I wear many hats - sometimes I'm a teacher in a day, sometimes I'm helping a parent understand what all goes on here, and if there's any conflicts, I help support with that.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sunita
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my parents. They have been emotionally very supportive of my choices in school and in my career. My role model is my grandpa. He was the one who started the teacher position, and there's many teachers in my family. Having that family support and those role models who were educators really shaped my path and gave me the foundation to pursue my passion for teaching and working with children.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I have received so many great pieces of advice over the years. I'm the type of person who has a great work ethic, but I'm hard on myself when things don't always go in the right direction. People have always told me that if you can find 3 good things that has happened in that day, it was a good day. That advice has really helped me maintain perspective and not be so hard on myself when challenges come up.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say love of children and learning is very important in this career. You really have to have that passion for working with children and a genuine love for the learning process. That foundation is essential if you want to succeed and find fulfillment in early childhood education.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
From my perspective, at this moment, especially for non-profit organizations, it is funding. There are a lot of challenges, especially with what is going on with the news media and so on. Trying to maintain the funding and the budget for the needs of our families is hard. It's one of the biggest obstacles we face in being able to serve the families who need our services.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say honesty is most important to me. Being honest with yourself, most of all, when you do something wrong, and taking accountability. Those two values, honesty and accountability, really guide how I approach both my work and my personal life. It's about being truthful and owning your actions and decisions.
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