About Us

South West Early Learning

4555 Delridge Way SW or 5401 Delridge Way SW

Seattle WA, 98106

Tours? More info? call 206-913-2980

or elidia.sangerman@soundchildcare.org

Mon-Thurs morning or afternoon sessions available

About Us

Our teachers are highly qualified, educated bi-lingual professionals who care as much about the education and kindergarten preparation for your child as they do about having fun and allowing your child to be creative and imaginative. All teachers have or are working on advanced degrees in education.

Non-profit Southwest Early Learning is a chapter of Sound Child Care Solutions, an innovative consortium of child care centers sharing costs to increase resources in the classroom and improve the quality of early childhood education.

SWEL receives funding from both the City of Seattle Step Ahead program (funded by the Families and Education Levy) and United Way which pays for additional classroom resources as well as scholarships for low and moderate income families.

Our Partners:

Southwest Youth and Family Services

Delridge Neighborhood Development Association

City of Seattle Step Ahead Program

Families and Education Levy

United Way of King County

Elidia Sangerman

Director

My name is Elidia Sangerman. I am a bicultural teacher of color I am a mother of a six year old boy named Kevin. My family and I are originated from Oaxaca, Mexico. I have lived in Seattle for 8 years. I fluently speak both, English and Spanish, my home language is Spanish. I am also a STARS trainer as I like to extend my knowledge to those who want and are willing to educate children in the communities.I have my B.A. in Early Childhood Education and am pursuing my Masters degree in Early Childhood Education at Goddard College. I have also been honored with the position of Student Trustee on the Board of Trustees at Goddard College.

I am a teacher because I believe in making a positive difference in the life children who deserve to have a fair education. Children really inspired me to be a teacher. My students teach me so much and that’s why I know that they are all special in their own way. My goal is to educate students to feel confident of accomplishing their goals no matter what family, race, gender, culture, class, or linguistic group they come from. I want to teach them to feel proud of their roots, be respectful of other cultures, and to succeed working in a diverse community. I also believe it is important that we build successful relationships with parents because parents are their child’s model. We must be on the same page with the parents to know how we are helping a child and how we can work together to perform as excellent mentors. However, I believe that the early ages are the most important to prepare children for the later years when they have to make important decisions about their future.

Maria Luisa Aguilera
Head Teacher

Hi, I’m Maria Luisa Aguilera. I’m from Mexico, proudly from the state of Michoacan. I grew up in a rural town working since I remember in the fields with my parents and grandparents. I’m the oldest of my 5 brothers and sisters, I have two daughters of 22 and 21 years old and they are my life and inspiration.

I have my B.A. in Education and currently I’m working on my Masters in Education. I have almost 26 years working in the education field: guiding and interacting with children, families, teachers, and the community. I love to learn from the children because of their curiosity, playfulness, justice, forgiveness, and friendship…

I love my job. Each day my main rule is the responsibility and this word implies to put my work first, take each child as a true promise, respond to the trust of their parents, to investigate, study, focus closely on their special needs. I fight for change, liberty, environmental justice and be a positive model for the children, in search of a cultural democracy.

Karina Rojas-Rodriguez

Head Teacher

Hello my name is Karina Rojas-Rodriguez. I am fluent in Spanish and English. I was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico and moved to the United States when I was four years old. I have two brothers, Hector and Hernan, and one sister Rocio, and a beautiful nephew, Aldo. Without my parents Roberto and Olga I would not be where I am today. When I graduated high school I knew that college was something I needed to do and it was not questionable. I received the Achievers scholarship through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation out of many applicants, and that is what also inspired me to continue on with higher education; also to make my parents proud! I attended Washington State University and in May of 2008 I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education and a minor in Spanish.

I am attending Goddard College in Vermont, working towards my Masters degree in Early Childhood Education, focusing on Adult/Child interactions, and the Dual Language Model. I enjoy interacting with children and seeing how their vocabulary expands as we have authentic conversations.

Now I am here at SWEL Creekside and I look forward in working with your children and making an impact in their early childhood education. I love the way children think and work and I am very happy to say that I will be part of their learning… In my free time I enjoy playing softball, kickball and reading a good book; my favorite author is Jodi Picoult. Most of my free time is spent at Starbucks, working on homework. J

Ashley Coughlin

Assistant Teacher

My name is Ashley Coughlin and I’m excited about the opportunity to work with your family here at Creekside Preschool! I have one younger brother, Hunter, three dogs and a cat for siblings. I spend a lot of time with my family and am the first in my dad’s family to graduate college. I took classes at Green River during high school and was able to finish at the University of Washington in three years. I loved being on campus and surrounded by books and open-minded thinkers. My professors encouraged me to push through when things were rough, to look at things from many perspectives and inspired me to follow my heart into teaching. I have a deep appreciation for education and reading. I traveled to Honduras during one summer of college. By being placed in a situation where I was out of my comfort zone, it gave me an opportunity to discover more about myself and the way other people live. The most important thing I learned through that experience was that the clutter and fast-paced lifestyle of the US isn’t the only pathway to happiness and healthy living. I also feel like having to work nearly full time hours during school gave me the ability to manage my time and priorities well. I love being outdoors camping, fishing, and getting my hands dirty. I enjoy reading and music a great deal. I was even in the marching band during high school! When I have free time my favorite hobby is dancing, especially to salsa music!

Marian Hassan
Assistant Teacher

“Hello” everyone, my name is Marian Hassan and I am from Somalia. I was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. I grew up in my country in a big family. My dad died when I was 13 years old. My mom had to help us more when my dad died; she had to take care of us. She worked hard because she was both mom and dad. A year after my dada died, my mom decided to move to another country because she didn’t have anyone to help take care of her and her children. She was looking for a better life for her children and herself.

We moved to Egypt and I liked it a lot. I started school to learn the Arabic language because I didn’t know how to speak Arabic. I could read and write it, but I didn’t know how to speak it very well. I studied the Arabic language and grammar after that. In 2002, I started 9^th grade in high school. I studied more and after 4 years in high school I felt more confident.

When I graduated high school, I started college. I took one semester before we moved to the United States. I lived in Amarillo, Texas. I lived there one year then I moved to Seattle. I started school and work. I took some ESL and GED classes. Now I am an early childhood education student and a preschool teacher.

I like to work with children and I love to encourage them in many ways. I decided to take CDA classes and get more training in early childhood education. I hope to continue learning more about children and more about early childhood education. The more I learn, the more I can be successful. I hope to be able to help children and their families by respecting them and being the best teacher I can be.

Hortencia Mercado

Floater teacher

My name is Hortencia Mercado; I was born in Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico. I am the youngest in my family of four. With the unconditional support of my parents and some teachers I was able to succeed. I was building my values, such as responsibility, respect, spirit of fighting, love toward my culture, honesty, discipline, etc. it was great love toward small children and my desire to learn about their development, guide and protect them. It is said that we all are born with a gift that God has gave us and I know that He gave me the gift of patience and love toward children.

I am conscience that working with children implies a great responsibility, dedication and preparation to attend each child individually to their needs and interests. The most important thing for me is to give them quality time, to influence their life in a positive manner, be a role model for them and support for the parents. Work with children is for me the most important goal.

And Goddard College is just one more step that will help me be able to reach my goal, the most interest area for me is Education especially early childhood education because I have always liked small children and education allows me the opportunity to contribute positively to their early foundations of their education. “Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn”. I want to teach children that if someone down the road of their life tells them that they are “different” well maybe they are and that difference makes them unique, and being unique is something that we have to cherish because that uniqueness will help us maintain our identity and we have to be proud of it and teach other about it, maybe they will not appreciate it as much as we do but at least they will learn to respect it.