Starting college at age 3

In the fall of 1987 when they were three years old, both began spending many of their waking hours at the Child Development Center in the Burkhiser Complex at Chadron State College.

“Sometimes I tell people I started to college when I was three,” Siobhana said with a grin. “It was always fun here. I enjoyed coming here and being around other kids. I know I never wanted to leave at the end of the day.”

Laura also has good things to say about her days at the center. “I know I was never bored. Something was always planned for us to do. There were plenty of books around and we got to play outdoors. I always liked that. I learned a lot through the activities that we had. I was always eager to get here in the mornings when mom dropped me off on her way to class.”

Laura was introduced to the center when her mother, Stephanie, moved from Casper and enrolled at Chadron State. Laura attended the center two years until she went to kindergarten and then returned for a couple of years afterwards during the summers while her mother was taking classes.

Laura went through the eighth grade in the Chadron Public Schools, but attended high school in Casper, where her father lives. After graduating from Natrona County High in 2002, she returned to Chadron to attend college.

Siobhana recalls that besides attending the center as a pre-schooler, she would frequently return to the center after her day was done when she was in kindergarten and the first grade at East Ward Elementary School.

Both of the CSC sophomores now have relatives who are enrolled at the center. They are Siobhana’s little sister, Evelyn, and Laura’s cousin, Madison Cogdill. Both began attending the center in January and are now the best of friends.

“They always dance around when they see each other and are great chums,” said Evelyn’s mother, Ann.

The Week of the Young Child is April 18-24, when Child Development Centers across the country have special reason to let the public know about their services.

The CSC center opened in 1972. It currently is caring for 33 children from three through six years of age, although youths through age eight are eligible to attend. About 20 college students work part-time at the center. Nearly half of the latter group earns credit by participating in a pre-school practicum.

Madison’s father, Chadron elementary teacher Bill Cogdill, said the center is greatly appreciated by parents with young children.

“It’s a wonderful asset to the community. The kids learn to play together, they get good meals, they learn to love books because somebody is always reading to them and we know they are safe.”

Evelyn’s mother said she knows of people who rejected employment elsewhere and came to Chadron because the Child Development Center was available for their children.