Graduating college in four years is a great plan—on paper. The “typical” college student attends classes, does homework and some hold down a job to boot.

What about students that don’t fit into the typical college student mold?

Missouri Southern has substantial numbers of non-traditional students on campus. Since 1986, a resource has been available to students that might make going to school and having a family easier.  

The Childhood Development Center, located in the Gene Taylor Education building, is that resource. Licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the CDC employees four full-time teachers. A bachelor’s degree is required for the lead teachers, but the center offers another opportunity for students as well.

Not only does the center provide childcare, but students majoring in early education are required to work at the center for credit. Rachel Bussell, a graduate of Southern, worked at the CDC when she was earning her early and elementary education degree in 2010.

“It was a great experience. [It was] a preschool environment, not just a daycare. I got a good variety from Southern because of the different age groups,” Bussell said.

Bussell is in her second year of teaching at Carver Elementary School in Neosho, Mo., and says the center helped prepare for life after college.

“I had a girl I grew up with use the center when she [attended] and say it was really good to have [it] there,” she said.

The Development Center has a viewing room, where the parents can check in on their children and “gives parents the peace of mind their child is OK.”

Nursing students also use the center for observation throughout the year. The center is open every day that the University is open, as well as are spring and fall breaks, and enrollment is a minimum of two days and maximum of five during the week.

Classes are broken up in various age brackets from six weeks to eight years old with prices changing with those brackets.