Cda Personal Story

My name is Regina Goforth-Lewis. I was born and raised in Michigan. As a young child, I went to four different elementary schools. I ended up graduating High School from the last of those schools, Southfield Christian High School. It was here that I decided I would eventually work with youth in some way. My life took a small detour before I got to that point. I attended the Oakland Community College shortly after graduating, however, decided to work full time and pursue a different career avenue: Retail Management. Although this was exciting and perfect for me at the time, I knew it was not my calling. Around the age of 22, I decided to enroll back to in college part time and follow the original dream of working with young people. I studied under the Social Work/Mental Health field. I never completed the program to receive my Associates Degree; however, I do have 66 credit hours accumulated. During this time, I loved college and my internship, which later became a fulltime job at the H.A.V.E.N. I worked there as a Supervised Visitation Specialist for many years. While working in the social work field and also in the communications field, I met and married my husband and we started a family. I always knew if it was feasible I would want to be able to stay at home with my children for as long as possible and I was fortunate enough to be able to do this for almost 13 years. Along the way I held down several part time jobs to earn extra income for the family, these jobs always included working with youth to some degree, such as a shift supervisor at the local Parks and Recreation Center’s concession stand or at the Elementary School where the children attended as a lunch room monitor. I also volunteered time at my church as a Sunday school teacher, a senior high youth advisor and a Deacon. I read to students at the library and taught American Sign Language (ASL) to hearing children. After 15 years, my children’s father and I divorced. I currently find myself as a single mother with four busy children of my own, ranging in ages from 6 to 16 years old. For the last five years, I have held an amazing job as Director of Kids Hope USA. This is an elementary school-based mentoring program. I also work as a Toddler/Preschool Assistant Teacher at a Montessori. This has secured my love for children and helped me to set my new (old) goals once again. I intend to acquire a CDA, additional training and continual education to further my career in teaching and working in the Early Childhood Education field. Finally, my life long passion to work with youth at some capacity, working and volunteering at several different jobs that allowed me the opportunity to teach, direct, and assist young people, and my passion to continue to do so, leads me to pursuing a career in Early Childhood Development and acquiring my CDA.