ADProfiles: Meet our ADPeeps & ADPartners

Meet ADP Alumna Karen Madamba! 

Meet Karen Madamba, a member of the ADP A21-22 cohort! Karen now works at Phoenix House CA as a prevention coordinator, teaching and curating curriculum to support the socioemotional skills of children in K-12 schools. As a prevention coordinator, Karen trains educators, identifies potential school district partners and finds liaisons to learn about what parents and counselors believe their students need.

Karen’s experience curating an emergent curriculum project in the ADP Psychology 134B course was foundational for developing the skills that she uses in her current position. As all ADP alumni have experienced, implementation of a curriculum does not always go according to plan! Karen notes that learning to follow a child’s lead has informed the way she implements her program’s curriculum with school-age students. 

When Karen began ADP, she felt certain she wanted to pursue medicine after graduating. However, her CEECI internship at the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Roundtable motivated her to reevaluate her plans. Karen worked with CACFP to interview home-based care providers with the aim of passing the Food with Care Bill, which would provide home-based providers full reimbursement for food they purchase for children in their care. Karen found purpose in working directly with the community, having informed conversations with community members and, in her words, “meeting people where they are at.” Karen found many aspects of her CEECI experience meaningful, including “e-tabling” with the communities she worked with so that they didn’t have to drive long distances, interacting with staff who spoke different languages and listening to the lived experiences of community members. Now, Karen is embarking on the next step in her educational and professional journey: applying to graduate programs in public health! We wish you well, Karen, and can’t wait to hear updates! 

Meet ADP’s community partner, KYCC!

Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCC) has been a valuable and longstanding partner of ADP ever since the inception of the Community-Engaged Early Childhood Internship (CEECI) in January 2021. In spring of 2025, five ADP Cohort A students — Jocelyn Ricoy, Aaron Ruiz, Pamela Perez, Kyle Lee and Alexa Garcia — interned at KYCC’s preschool: Kids Town. Kids Town serves children from 2 to 5 years of age in a full-day, year-round program with Korean, Spanish and English curriculum. Located in Koreatown, the preschool’s curriculum reflects the area’s diverse and multilingual community. Kids Town takes a whole-child approach that focuses on supporting children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.

Claudia Garcia, Kids Town’s Director, emphasizes that families are their children’s first and most important teachers. At Kids Town, families are closely involved and assist through classroom volunteering, Parent Advisory Committee meetings, Kids Town Olympics and annual events such as the Harvest Festival. Volunteers from external institutions and universities are also welcome! For this spring’s CEECI internship at Kids Town, ADP students created and executed developmentally appropriate curriculum, engaged in student teaching inside of the classrooms, and assisted with preparing materials needed for the trilingual curriculum Kids Town uses to support children’s language development. ADP students Kyle, Pamela and Alexa created an interactive activity that involved creating objects out of varying shapes of fruit, Aaron conducted clarinet lessons and Jocelyn led gardening activities on Earth Day! Together, the CEECI interns established calm corners in each of the three classrooms and the outdoor space, where children could use books, sensory items and other comfort items to help them regulate their emotions.  

According to Garcia, the ADP interns exemplified strong communication skills, patience and genuine enthusiasm for early childhood education. Jocelyn Ricoy, one of this spring’s CEECI Kids Town Interns, emphasized how she was “given the opportunity to lead and implement an activity [she] designed [herself], which strengthened [her] confidence, leadership and initiative.” Kyle Lee, another spring 2025 intern, emphasized that “recognizing and responding to the specific needs of a community is one of the most meaningful ways to empower it.” Garcia is eager to strengthen the partnership between ADP and Kids Town to enable future interns, children and staff to benefit from the power of collaborative early childhood education!

Collaborations like CEECI are all the more important in the current moment. In recent years, Kids Town has faced some obstacles, including enrollment challenges following COVID-19 and staffing shortages. If you would like to become involved with Kids Town, there are a few ways you can provide support: volunteering in Kids Town classrooms or at family events; tutoring or mentoring youth via KYCC’s after school program, providing translation for KYCC services; and donating supplies.

Visit kyccla.org for additional information on how to support Kids Town and KYCC’s programs!