Rebecca Pineda knew she wanted to pursue a teaching career from the beginning. Her own kindergarten teacher made a profound impact, drawing Pineda out of her shyness and giving her a gentle introduction to the classroom environment. Pineda wanted to recreate that experience for the next generation of students. But getting there felt slightly … mysterious.
Irvine Valley College’s Teacher Preparation Pathway offered the answer. Pineda chose IVC because of its high transfer rate to four-year universities and started there in 2024.
As a freshman, she joined IVC’s Aspiring Educators Club and now serves as its student president. She’s also a student representative on the school’s Teacher Preparation Pathway Workgroup, providing critical student input in program development, and a student voting member representing IVC on the California Teachers Association Aspiring Educators Board.
Getting involved
“The club really opened doors for me,” Pineda says, noting she’d never been involved in high school clubs and didn’t understand how they worked. “This was my first time getting involved. I learned about the various pathways to becoming a teacher and how to get a credential. This helped me understand the system.”
California faces a teacher shortage and has made significant efforts to address it since 2018. Irvine, with its stellar reputation for educational excellence and abundance of award-winning teachers, stands poised to produce the next generation of outstanding educators. Irvine Company recognized this opportunity and recently provided a significant financial contribution to IVC for its Teacher Preparation Pathway.
There has been a push the past several years to open new pathways into teaching, but those opportunities can be confusing for students.
“The state has made this a priority, specifically working with community colleges to build a pipeline through the four-year institutions to credentialing,” says Shelby Clatterbuck, child development/early childhood education instructor at the college. “It starts as early as the high school years.”
Building the pathways
IVC’s four-year vision includes an apprenticeship program, which will enable students to receive pay while learning on the job. By partnering with organizations like the Teaching and Research Foundation, students will learn pedagogy alongside their liberal arts education. There are also plans to build lab classrooms on campus, as well as to connect students locally and statewide. Funding will help pay for conferences and interstate travel to broaden students’ perspectives.
“Clear pathways are now being visualized so students know what their options are,” Clatterbuck says. “Because teaching is cross-disciplined, we’re building a cohesive community for them.”
For students like Pineda, that community is proving essential. Volunteering in various classrooms has already allowed her to pinpoint the age range she’s comfortable teaching, which solidified her decision to teach kindergarten.
“For many of these students, kindergarten is their first time going to school,” she says. “I’ll be their first teacher. I can make learning fun and help them make friends. I want to be that for them.”
