My name is Ariel Lopez, and I am the Education Coordinator with the West Las Vegas Early Head Start program. I am a mom of three strong beautiful kids, ages thirteen, ten, and seven. Together we enjoy spending quality time with each other, our family and friends. As their mom, I love watching them grow and strive in their sports, enjoying their everyday life, and being apart of their growth in becoming the young adults of our future. From a young age, I have always had a passion for the understanding and development of our young children in their early childhood stages. After graduating from West Las Vegas High School, class of 2008, I went on to attend Luna Community College. In 2015, I earned my Associates Degree in Early Childhood and Multicultural with an emphasis on Infants and Toddlers. After receiving my degree, I began working with Bright Beginnings as a teacher in the one-year-old classroom. After three years, I wanted to continue to grow and expand my experiences; I began working with West Las Vegas in 2018, and in 2019 I became employed with the Head Start program as an Early Head Start Teacher. It is an amazing experience seeing all the students I have had in my previous classrooms and new students growing and learning more each year. With my current position as the Early Head Start Education Coordinator, I have had the opportunity to become a better support to my staff and co-workers and have continued in my growth with ongoing learning experiences and opportunities to become a better worker and individual. It has been a privilege to be a part of this program and helping each child and their family's journey in the early stages of growth and development, and I look forward to many more years of supporting our Head Start and Early Head Start program.