Walk into a classroom at the San Diego State Children’s Center and you’ll find a room filled with the carefree laughter of children singing, dancing and creating structures with building blocks — or just about anything they can get their hands on. Step outside and you’ll see kids riding bikes, building sand castles and swinging on the jungle gym.
For these children, playing is their only job. Director Robin Judd intends to keep it that way, despite significant cuts in state funding for the program.
Although Judd said she always knew teaching was her calling, it wasn’t until she started working part-time in college, at a preschool run by a family friend, that she realized she wanted to work with young children.
“Children are real. They don’t get hung up on petty things or unimportant things,” Judd said. “When I go and play with them I’m just inspired by them and I remember why it’s so important that we continue to fight the battle to find a way to support the student parents who need quality care.”
Judd first worked at the center as a student intern in the 1970s and then returned as a teacher in 1987. She said while many things have changed throughout the years, the biggest challenge as director more than eight years ago has been dealing with budget cuts.
State funding meant to subsidize child care costs for low-income student families has decreased by nearly $100,000, which has subsequently resulted in a decrease in the number of student parents the center can serve.
When the center moved to its current location on East Campus Drive in 2004, more than half of the families enrolled were students. Now, 30 percent are students, almost all of whom are funded by a state grant.
This also means the number of student fee-paying families has slowly diminished. In order to fill this gap, the center has had to enroll more fee-paying community families.
“I go and play with the kids, particularly when we talk about the budget, and I’m making those decisions about enrollment and management and looking at making the hard decisions,” Judd said. “It takes you back to those days and that moment where you let go of all those worries … and you just get involved in the moment.”
To top off the budget woes, Judd said the center is also unable to hire volunteers because of strict state standards governing the center’s operations.
One saving grace for the center is its designation as a lab school for child and family development. Because of this status, the center receives small amounts of money from the university and is able to hire unpaid students who do field work in the classrooms.
“It’s great to know that (we have) a piece in training future teachers who are going to go on, and the ripple is going to spread out beyond us,” Judd said. “They’re going to work with other children and families and make a difference in our community.”
Senior Bibiana Ojeda-Hernandez, who is pursuing a degree in child development, said the way the center operates is a testamony to Judd’s hard work and dedication.
“Just how everything is run reflects how involved she is — making sure the children have a safe environment that helps their development,” Ojeda-Hernandez said.
And it seems as though Judd’s passion for working with children is rubbing off on other center employees.
“Seeing how the kids grow and develop, how their brains work and how they’ve changed over the past year is crazy,” senior Alexandra Pappas said.
Judd said she hopes to continue to foster a collaborative mindset at the center between teachers, parents, students and children as they move forward with projects, such as the renovation of the center’s backyard playground.
“It pulls together the families who had a dream, the faculty and staff who are researching here and the students and children,” Judd said. “This project epitomizes what we’re about — working together as a collaborative.”
