Our 2025-26 “A” cohort students completed at least 180 hours at their UCLA childcare site and and at least 50 hours in their community-engaged internship. Some community-engaged internships are designed to be remote, some hybrid, and some in-person throughout metropolitan LA. All community partners this year are returning partners, underscoring our focus on sustained engagement and partnership continuity; three have been hosting our students every year since the height of the pandemic in January 2021. To date, 146 ADP students have volunteered over 8,400 hours total with our community partners! We cherish each of our community partners and thank them for the care, creativity, and generosity with which they have mentored our students. Please read the spring 2026 interns’ descriptions of their internships below!
The California Child and Adult Food Program Roundtable
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Layla Alalawi, Rio Lopez, & Angelina Silva
The CACFP Roundtable internship was an invaluable experience, providing members of our team, Angie, Layla, and Rio, with an opportunity to learn and engage in legislative advocacy that aims to ensure equitable access to nutritious foods in various child and adult care settings. In addition to learning about the importance of early childhood nutrition, reimbursements, and storytelling, we also gained an understanding of where pressing policy issues intersect with the daily experiences of child care providers.
We had the opportunity to visit childcare sites from Head Start to in-home childcare programs, engage with the children CACFP serves, and hear directly from providers about their personal stories and experiences with the program.
We also had the opportunity to support the childcare community through political advocacy at the state and federal levels. We are incredibly grateful for this experience, as it has profoundly impacted our personal and professional growth as advocates for food justice.
Child Development Institute
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Sofia Byun & Lexi Elsberry
The Child Development Institute (CDI) serves infants, children, and their families by providing therapeutic, developmental, and mental health support through the DIR/Floortime interventions. The DIR/Floortime model focuses on child development by building relationships and prioritizing individual needs and differences. Interns supported the Social Skills Groups (SSG), where children between two and three years of age work one-on-one with clinicians in a group setting through a play-based approach to promote self-regulation, attention, communication, and problem-solving. During this time, caregivers attend a parent support group, facilitated by a therapist, to share experiences about their children, offer and receive support from others, and discuss specific developmental topics. Additionally, interns supported the Building Buddies Group, which has a similar focus of strengthening peer relationships with children between the ages of four and nine. CDI also offers speech, occupational, and physical therapy sessions, as well as assessment and child development services. At the end of the quarter, interns presented applied research projects on ABA vs DIR/Floortime approach (Lexi) and supporting children with ADHD (Sofia) for both clinician and family audiences at CDI. For more information, please visit CDI’s website at https://cdikids.org and their Instagram @child.development.institute.
Infant Development Association of California
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Shay Baker, Emiko Brown, & Alexandra Nilsen
The Infant Development Association of California (IDA) is a network that aims to foster collaboration between families and professionals working with children from birth to three with developmental delays. IDA is composed of developmental service providers and community members who work to provide education,
leadership, and advocacy for young children. IDA shares policy updates, advocates for increasingly effective therapeutic strategies, and promotes community support for young children.
During our time as IDA interns, we worked closely with Julie Taren (front row, second from right), IDA Board membership co-chair and our internship mentor.
Her leadership allowed us access to event planning and policy meetings, where we aided in developing the Vivian Weinstein conference and learned about current early intervention policy to inform our community outreach.
As interns, we conducted 11 interviews with families who have received early start services and compiled themes from their stories into an informational handout. This handout aims to be a resource for service providers on how to advocate for early intervention services and the families they engage with. Additionally, we attended the Vivian Weinstein Early Intervention Leadership Conference, where we had the opportunity to listen to professional panelists discuss topics such as DIR/Floortime, attachment relationships, and California developmental services policy.
Please visit IDA’s website https://www.idaofcal.org or follow their Instagram @idaofcal for more information.
Jewish Family Service LA
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Charlie Fairtlough, Mia Lewis, Maya Passananti, & Kyra Willett
Our internship is with Jewish Family Service (JFS) Los Angeles, a social services agency that provides support to the L.A community. One of JFS’s support services is a transitional housing shelter for individuals and families experiencing domestic violence. The domestic violence shelter provides families with a living space, counseling services, parenting support, and group services.
Our internship includes staffing the child care room, library, and backyard play area at the domestic violence shelter for a total of 12 hours a week. On site, we supervise and engage with children ages 2-15 years old. This usually looks like helping them with their homework, playing board games, creating art, building Legos, kicking soccer balls, and watching movies.
Koreatown Youth & Community Center’s Kids Town Preschool
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Chloe Bang, Jeramaya Estavillo, Louna Ripart, & Deisy Garcia Rojas
The Koreatown Youth and Community Center (KYCCLA), originally the Korean Youth Center (KYC) was founded in 1975 to support recently immigrated and low-income Korean children in Los Angeles who struggled with cultural barriers. Today, KYCCLA supports the vast multi-cultural community of Koreatown through various services: Mental Health Counseling, Financial Help, Family Support, Drug & Alcohol Recovery, Supportive Housing, and K-12 Educational Resources. As one of KYCCLA’s educational resources, Kids Town is a year-round NAEYC-accredited trilingual-immersion preschool serv- ing 2.5–5-year-old children in three classrooms. As interns, we worked to support trilingual literacy exposure of Korean, Spanish, and English. We created alphabet posters in each language for each classroom, expanded on the trilingual curriculum regarding recycling through books and art activities, and reinforced trilingual labels throughout the preschool. Our projects aimed to foster language, cognitive, and socio-emotional development through communication, literacy exposure, and peer-interactions. To learn more about KYCC Kids Town, including various other services provided by KYCC, please visit their website, https://www.kyccla.org, or their instagram @kyccla.
Nest Homeboy
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Elias Alvarado Bush, Marlen Gonzalez, Wendy Perez Govea, Briza Muñoz & Marissa Teng (with Jessica Navarro ADP ’22-23 and Mikaela Cruz ADP ’22)
Nest Homeboy is a free, trauma- informed childcare program for child- ren of formerly incarcerated and gang-involved parents participating in reentry and recovery programming at Homeboy Industries’ Chinatown campus. Currently in its pilot phase, the program aims to address a critical barrier to participant engagement in Homeboy’s services: lack of accessible, affordable childcare.
As interns, we provide high quality, trauma-informed childcare to the children of Homeboy families by enabling low child-to-adult ratios, allowing individualized, relationship-based care for each child. We promote & facilitate play to help develop social emotional skills, and allow them to experience safety, stability, and nurturing care. We also document the children’s developmental learning and share our documentation through easily accessible learning journal entries. Another key part of our internship is observing the Parent and Me classes that Homeboy provides families.
During the classes we maintain detailed notes and introduce the families to our classroom. In addition, we provide administrative support, with tasks varying from schedule development to data management. With the support of the Nest facilitators and the Homeboy staff, we strive to create a safe and inviting area for children to be children. Learn more at https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/safe-seen-and-cherished-nest-homeboy-children-are-cared-for.
Refugee Children’s Center
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Citlaly Dominguez, Giselle Llamas, & Cynthia Trujillo
(with Audrey De Kunder, ADP ’24-25)
The Refugee Children Center (RCC) in North Hills, California, was established by Pastor Fred Morris to support refugee children and their families. The center has grown over the years to provide a plethora of programs, including legal resources, social services, educational programs, and community empowerment. At RCC, we support their Nuevos Comienzos (“New Beginnings”) program, which provides drop-in childcare for families seeking services or attending workshops and events.
We aim to foster an inclusive and culturally sensitive environment, incorporating developmentally appropriate materials and activities. Our approach emphasizes developing emotional awareness and regulation skills for children who have experienced or may be experiencing adversity.
As interns, we have implemented a child-led classroom structure which promotes a sense of belonging through the validation of children’s experiences, interests, and cultural identity. The classroom is a space where children can express themselves freely and join in community with peers who share similar lived experiences.
Santa Monica Early Childhood Task Force
2026 ADP CEECI interns: Selene Gutierrez & Isabella Montes
The Santa Monica Early Childhood Task Force (SMECTF) was established in 1980 with continued support of the City of Santa Monica. It is a collaborative, volunteer-driven organi- zation dedicated to improving access to and affordability of high-quality early childhood education. ADP CEECI interns Isabella Montes and Selene Gutierrez have partnered with SMECTF over 10 weeks, attending the literacy fair, presenting at Community Voices, and examining the Early Development Instrument (EDI), resulting in community leadership interviews. The interviews conducted were with therapists, counselors, city employees, a daycare director, and a parent revealing patterns of a vast amount of Santa Monica resources as well as a need to increase visibility and connect these resources to the community.
The internship served as a start to direct community conversation and documentation of what the SMECTF should invest in and advocate for. Moving forward, SMECTF aims to support the Pico Neighborhood directly, as the EDI and interviews are needed in holistic community relationships building. To learn more about SMECTF’s history and mission please visit: https://www.earlychildhoodsm.org/.
Category: ADP News