December 2018
Congratulations to the 2019 Big Apple Nominees for the LYFE Program – Ms. Mignon Callender and Ms. Jodi Kaltner! Both Mignon and Jodi embody all of the criteria for being a Big Apple nominee by inspiring families, modeling professional excellence, and enriching the LYFEcommunity!
Ms. Mignon Callendar
LYFE Teacher, Ms. Mignon Callender, has been an exemplar teacher leader who fosters high-quality early childhood education, effective family empowerment and engagement, and strong collegial relationships focused on children’s learning and family success for 19 years. Mignon consistently engages in data-informed planning, ensuring learning experiences are aligned to children’s interests, strengths, and needs. Mignon is fully present while interacting with children, resulting in meaningful social-emotional connections and children’s learning being extended.
Mignon’s experience as a teenage mother, who was once herself enrolled in LYFE, enables her to draw on her personal journey to provide extraordinary support and care for student parents and their families. She empowers student parents to advocate for themselves and their children, invites students to enhance their parenting abilities, and creates a safe and trusting environment for families to develop their goals and achieve success. Last month, Mignon was leaving work in the evening (after staying late to care for children while student parents attended additional academic classes) when an unsafe situation emerged in front of the school building. Mignon physically shielded a student parent and their child from the danger to keep them safe, irrespective of the danger it may have posed to her. This is one of many heroic actions Mignon has taken for the families LYFE serves, and it is certain not to be the last.
Mignon’s teaching effectiveness, and her capacity to form strong family partnerships, serve as an inspiration to her colleagues and leadership alike.
Ms. Jodi Kaltner
LYFE Social Worker, Ms. Jodi Kaltner, has been a significant source of support for student parents, serving as a social worker for the last 14 years in the NYC DOE. Jodi models the way by empowering student parents to recognize their own strengths, interests, and growth areas. She uses this data to inform planning with student parents to ensure they graduate from high school and develop a quality post-secondary plan.
Jodi provides student parents with several hands-on opportunities to explore the post-secondary options available, helping them recognize that post-secondary success is attainable. She initiates college tours for student parents across LYFE, arranges for student information sessions at D79’s Co-Op Tech, and encourages students to attend career fairs across NYC.
Outcomes of Jodi’s exemplary work include a 16 year-old student parent, who experienced serious life challenges, that Ms. Kaltner helped graduate early from high school, as well as gain acceptance to 11 colleges, and is currently an Engineer major at Brooklyn College; a student parent who was homeless, along with her child, who graduated from high school while enduring a number of traumatic circumstances, is now enrolled in a career training program to become a medical assistant, all due to Jodi’s relentless advocacy; and a student parent Jodi helped with overcoming her fears of being undocumented, supported the student’s path to citizenship, and is currently helping her pursue her career goal of being a diplomat.
Jodi’s profound leadership is contagious and inspirational to all.
Congratulations to LYFE‘s 2019 Big Apple Nominees
Ms. Mignon Callendar and Ms. Jodi Kaltner!!
