LUMINA partnership gives students hands-on experience
Academy students gain job skills, confidence while mentoring younger children
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LEWISTOWN - The first sign that Catalina Snyder had become more than another teenager helping at the LUMINA Center showed up in who the younger children began seeking out.
They came to Snyder for help with homework, for comfort or simply to spend time with her. For Snyder, now a Program Specialist Apprentice through the Academy of Science and Technology's cooperative education program, those moments meant more to her than any job title.
"It showed me they trusted me and felt safe around me, which means a lot to me," Snyder said.
Her path through LUMINA has been gradual: teen counselor, summer intern, then Program Specialist Apprentice through the Academy's cooperative education program. Along the way, Snyder found a career direction. After graduation, she wants to become an infant teacher.
Her story also reflects a broader partnership among LUMINA, the Academy and programs connected with CareerLink/TIU, an effort to give teenagers real work experience while giving younger children more people to learn from, trust and follow.
For LUMINA Executive Director Sherri Bickert, the relationship works because each side gets something it needs.
Academy students gain hands-on hours and experience. LUMINA gets teenagers inside the building, around its children and familiar with its programs. Sometimes, they come back.
A family connection
The Snyder family's relationship with LUMINA began before Catalina's current co-op position.
Tyler Snyder, Catalina's father and an Academy instructor in mechatronics, robotics and automation, said his wife learned about Rainbow Summer after he retired from the military and the family moved back to the area. Their children attended the program, and the connection grew.
Tyler later advised LUMINA on building needs and possible grants, brought people in to evaluate the building and helped with the center's auction.
The Academy connection grew with it. Bickert said Tyler expanded that relationship, encouraging Academy programs to support the center. Students produced picnic tables, extension cords and other projects for LUMINA fundraisers, repaired broken tables and collected nonperishable food for Power Packs.
"He has been the key to that relationship, truthfully," Bickert said.
The Snyder children began moving through LUMINA's programs, too.
Catalina went from teen volunteer into greater responsibility. Her brother Sebastian later became a teen counselor and worked all eight available weeks of Rainbow Summer this past summer. Her younger brother Camden has attended Rainbow Summer and after-school programming and now wants to become a teen counselor himself.
Tyler has watched Catalina change.
"She's much more outspoken, much more, I guess, social than what she was," he said.
He remembers a daughter who once preferred standing back from the attention. LUMINA, he said, helped build her confidence.
As Catalina learned more, she kept reaching for another responsibility. She completed additional training as a "floater," allowing her to help with meals and other duties, then later helped train new volunteers.
Tyler described her attitude in a series of questions: "What's my next challenge? What's the next thing I can do? How do I move on?"
Bickert saw the same thing.
"Catalina took everything that we handed her, and she just accomplished every task with grace and a great attitude," Bickert said.
She also noticed Catalina handling jobs that needed doing before anyone asked.
One example involved a task Catalina dreaded: making a phone call. Bickert initially gave her two calls to make, then reduced the assignment to one.
Catalina made it. "She aced it," Bickert said.
Learning by doing
The Academy side of the partnership gives those experiences structure.
Katlyn Kreider, the Academy's early childhood education instructor, said she reconnected with Bickert in 2024, and the two realized their new roles offered room to work together.
Early in the partnership, LUMINA began transporting Academy students to the center for LUMINA Little Ones. Bickert would pick up several teenagers, bring them to LUMINA to work with toddlers for about an hour and then return them to the Academy. The arrangement gave students hands-on experience while introducing them to the center, with the hope some might later return as teen counselors or become involved in summer and after-school programs.
Kreider's students need 480 hours working with young children to obtain the Child Development Associate Credential. Most of those hours come through the PreK Counts classroom at the Academy, but LUMINA gives students something different: access to mixed-age groups and younger children through programs such as LUMINA Little Ones, Rainbow Summer and activities held on Act 80 days.
"Students learn best when they have opportunities to apply what they are learning in a hands-on environment," Kreider said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education competency list for Child Care and Support Services Management covers professionalism, health and safety, child development, classroom management, curriculum, learning activities, family partnerships and clinical experience with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children.
Bryan Boyd, the Academy's cooperative education coordinator, calls co-op the capstone of that education.
"The co-op piece is capping that education off with a work experience where they're utilizing all those skills that they learn here, and they're applying it in a real-life setting," Boyd said.
Students must progress through a state task list without allowing co-op work to interfere with completing their program requirements. Ideally, Boyd said, the workplace helps students satisfy those requirements.
Boyd also wants students to learn the workplace habits employers expect: showing up, arriving on time, communicating and working as part of a group.
Tyler Snyder, speaking as an educator, put the value more simply.
"Realistic training," he said.
A student can write a lesson plan in class, he said, but working with children shows immediately whether the activity holds their attention, fits their age group or needs to change.
Catalina said the same experience taught her patience and flexibility.
"Every child is different," she said.
Kreider has watched Catalina change, too.
Catalina, she said, is naturally reserved, but over three years, she has "come out of her shell and grown comfortable in herself as a professional."
The next student
Lilly Beers could be next.
Beers attended LUMINA's Rainbow Summer program when she was younger. She later entered the Academy's Early Childhood Education program and, since July, has worked at LUMINA through Bridges to the Future. Bickert said that connection came through the Academy and Bridges to the Future.
Her afternoons include helping children with homework, giving daily devotions, joining them in music and games and building relationships.
Beers hopes eventually to teach children in grades two through four.
She has also learned that relationships take time.
One child who normally turned to Bickert for homework help or conversation has begun turning to Beers, too.
"Recently, she has been letting me help her with her homework and starting to talk to me a lot more," Beers said.
Beers said the work has taught her patience and the need to understand that children come from different backgrounds. It’s also taught her when to ask coworkers for help.
Bickert sees the possibility of Beers moving into a co-op position next year as a senior.
That’s the cycle she hopes to build: younger children encounter LUMINA, teenagers return as counselors or workers, Academy students gain real experience, and some move into internships, co-op positions or jobs before leaving for college or careers.
Bickert doesn't expect every teenager to stay, and that isn't the point.
"The ongoing goal would be to continue to support these students clear up through their graduating years, and then, send them off," she said/
For the Snyder family, that cycle is already visible. Camden wants to come back as a teen counselor. Sebastian already has. Catalina kept accepting more responsibility until the girl who once stood back had younger children coming to her for help. Now, she knows where she wants to go.
She wants to teach.