Zaentz Fellow Spotlight: Charlie Barron

Charlie Barron, '26 MA, is the first graduate of the new Zaentz Fellows Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. The tuition-free program offers students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of early childhood content, engage with the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, and build connections and community with professionals from different parts of the early childhood ecosystem, all while earning their master's degree. Barron graduated this June with her degree in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS), and is looking forward to using her newfound skills to work with young children and families in her own community. In this Q&A, Barron looks back at how the Zaentz Fellows Program impacted her and what she'll be doing next.

What was a meaningful experience to you as a Zaentz Fellow?

As fellows, we routinely learned from early childhood leaders across research, policy, and individual early childhood education programs. These connections not only introduced me to diverse examples of what leadership and need-meeting can look like, but demonstrated how these fields intersect and uplift one another. During one of our site visits to a local care provider, we broke into a spirited discussion about parent empowerment at this particular center, the role of research in centering parent voice, and the reflection of that empowerment in local policy. Seeing our classroom conversations translate to community impact reminded me of the intertwined nature of early childhood work and helped me to view my experience as a fellow not only as an opportunity for personal learning, but an invitation to actively participate in local early childhood networks with the resources provided to me. 

What is something you’ve accomplished in the fellowship that you are proud of?

Throughout my POLS field project, I was able to leverage my position as a fellow to advocate for local early childhood inequities as a priority issue within both Stanford and surrounding communities. I am particularly proud of how my project was able to capture shared investment in early math and literacy skills among Stanford students and district leaders, pointing towards an overlapping desire for increased access to early childhood education resources. I am also proud of how interpersonal my project became in an effort to represent these perspectives authentically, enabling me to spend a large portion of my time at Stanford in schools and centers continuing to work directly with children and families.

What’s next for you after graduation? What types of work would you be interested in? 

I will be starting this fall as a Head Start lead teacher and am thrilled to apply the concepts and skills I’ve learned to my own classroom and in service of my own community. Through this position, I hope to continue investigating the role of child care centers and networks as hubs of mutual aid and grassroots policy, especially within Appalachian contexts. Having the Stanford Center on Early Childhood family standing beside me empowers me to view my role as a care provider as an opportunity for leadership, advocacy, and community-based research. Above all, my work will continue to be inspired by my Zaentz and POLS peers' dedication to expanding care and equity in their own communities.

Photo credit: Ryan Zhang