Astrid Feist, a teacher at the Cerritos College Child Development Center, received the “Teacher of the Year” Award for the Fourth District of Los Angeles County distributed by LAUP (Los Angeles Universal Pre-school).

Feist was nominated by a parent of one of the students from her classroom.

Her nomination required a written portion from both the nominator and the nominee.

The nominator explained why Feist deserved the nomination. Feist, as the nominee, was to write a philosophy statement and why early childhood development was her choice of field.

 “I felt it’s important to advocate for children and stress the importance of teachers with degrees in early childhood education. Children deserve the right to get a good education right from the beginning and understand the importance of it as well,” Feist said.

Feist went into early childhood because she, as an English as a Second Language (ESL) student, remembered missing out on opportunities and feels educating the students of a second language was important.

Following the submission of the two writing portions, a committee representing each of the five districts of LA County gathered to make their selections for each district.

Two weeks after the submission, Feist heard back from LAUP being notified that she was to be presented the award.

In addition, Feist even received a call from the CEO of LAUP, being congratulated on her award and her outstanding work she has displayed.

Feist has been teaching at Cerritos for 10 years and has been a teacher in early childhood development for a little over 17 years. She started part-time at Cerritos and became an intern for a higher position.

Prior to receiving her necessary degrees and permit, Feist shares how she started her general education and received her Associate degree at Cerritos College.

Feist then  transferred to La Verne for both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Early Childhood as well as her  teacher’s permit.