Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolanda Bush.
Hi Yolanda, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Since I can remember, I have always loved children and animals. My first career choice as a little girl was to become a Veterinarian due to the love and curiosity that I had for animals. As I got older, that changed to wanting to become a nurse because I realized how good I was at helping people. However, my passion for teaching children has always been a major aspect of my life. One of my first jobs was being a babysitter. I started volunteering with the youth and children’s church ministries at my church around the age of 16 and have continued assisting in those departments since then. I have since become the director of the children’s church ministry at my church and have held that position for 15 years now. Although working with children was already a major part of my life, when I first started college, I still had it in my mind that I wanted to be a nurse. My goal was to work in the neonatal unit so that I would be able to work with the babies. I knew that I wanted to work with children in some capacity, even within the health field.
Then I realized that I could make even more of a difference in educating children from a young age. I started at Santa Monica Community College taking nursing courses, and literally my last year of school, I decided to change my major. This was definitely a big deal for me because you just never know what’s going to happen. Transitions are always a confusing and scary time. Especially when you have had this one path in your mind for years and then it just changes. You take into account what other people might think and how they might feel. And then there’s always the conversations and thoughts about making less money in the child development field compared to being a nurse. But for me, I have always wanted a career that I am passionate about and I have always had the faith that God would take care of me regardless. Another key thing that continued to motivate me was the unwavering support of my parents, who never stopped supporting my educational and career decisions and goals. I started taking prerequisite courses for child development in order to get on the right track. At this time I had already applied to Universities to get into the nursing program and I had chosen liberal arts as a backup major. This all happened prior to me changing my career choice.
As I continued taking prerequisite courses, I received an acceptance letter into California State University Los Angeles, which was definitely a happy moment for me but also scary at the same time. I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to change my major or what else would come along with that. When I started my first semester at Cal State LA, I was told that it would take a long time for me to be able to switch my major to child development because it was an impacted major. However, by the end of my first semester, I was told that my major would officially be switched for the following semester. I knew that was only God that it happened so quickly. From there, I completed my undergraduate career and in the process, I applied for Grad school to continue my education in child development. I graduated with my bachelors in June of 2015 and completed my Masters in May of 2017 at Cal State LA. During my last semester of grad school, I started working on my business plan. After graduating, I continued working as a full-time preschool teacher. Eventually, I started teaching enrichment classes as well as private tutoring for children ranging from kindergarten to 3rd grade and continued working on my business plan. I used different strategies that I learned from one of my child development courses that taught how to plan, develop, and operate a preschool, as well as using my own personal experience as a preschool teacher. It took a few years for my dreams to finally become a reality but that day finally came when my preschool was licensed in March of 2022 and officially opened in July of 2022.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I faced a lot of challenges while trying to get to where I am now. As I was going to school for both undergrad and grad school, I was already a full-time preschool teacher. It took a lot to balance the school-work-home life. I would literally have to go straight from work to school, and one of the schools that I worked at during that time, was not trying to be flexible when it came to my school hours. I have always made it clear how important my education was and that it would always take priority. Because for me, I knew what the goal was and what I would need to do to get there. Thankfully it all worked out. At times I would be late to class and I didn’t really get to enjoy the full college experience because I literally only had time to go straight from work to class. There have been many Saturdays and even some Sundays after church that I would have to go up to the school to get work down and finish certain assignments. It was really important to me to continue staying active with my church and the responsibilities that I had and still have there, as well as keeping and staying with my personal friendships. I was a full-time teacher, full-time student, and fully dedicated volunteer at my church. At times it definitely became overwhelming but I just kept faith. I knew that God had a purpose and a plan for me and that if I could make the effort and continue to pray and do my best that he would do the rest. I definitely was not perfect in achieving and balancing each aspect of my life the entire time but I was able to find a balance. When opening a business, it can be a very scary thing. There’s so much to consider once the business finally opens and ensures that it can be successful. For my personal journey, what I thought would only take maybe a few months turned into a 5-year process. There were plenty of times when people suggested that I build my business differently and to open a home daycare instead of a facility, but that was not my goal or the vision that I had for Discovery Christian Preschool. Originally, I was going to use the building of my church to start my preschool but I ran into so many issues with permits and eventually realized it was not going to work.
After that, I started looking for a location that would be up to licensing and city standards. I did not find a location for the school until 2021, which was about two years after the first location didn’t work out. We were still dealing with the pandemic, the only reason this particular location became available is because the owner of the previous school decided to close during the pandemic, and I found it and knew that it had great potential but would still need some updating and changes to match my vision. I had no idea that a few changes would go into having issues with things that I didn’t even know I would have to deal with in order for the building to be considered safe. I have been the maintenance woman, cleaning lady, gardener administrator, and teacher in order to get my school up and running. Even today I still take on many of those responsibilities. I then ran into a lot of unplanned costs that set me back a good $30,000 or more. There were continuous expenses but no revenue. There was a long period of time when I did not even pay myself. My main goal was to keep as much of the start-up money as possible for the primary business expenses. For me, at that time, being able to pay myself was secondary. My main goal was the success of the preschool. Of course, that was not an easy time for me, not only was I dealing with the stress of getting the business up and running, I was now dealing with financial stress for both the business and my personal life. I was dealing with expense setbacks as well as a major time setback with getting licensed to open the preschool. Some of the companies that I had to work with would just drag their feet with getting the work done as it almost caused my licensing application to be pulled. I originally turned in my license application in July 2021 and from there I dealt with paperwork being lost and just a bunch of other unexpected roadblocks.
If my application were to get declined, I would have to wait another year or 2 to reapply for a license. That was an extremely stressful time for me because at this point I’ve lost so much money and time, and if my application would’ve been withdrawn then all of the time, money and effort would’ve been a waste. But I always say that God is always right on time, and once my final inspection was complete for my building, licensing came out the very next day and my preschool officially became a licensed facility in March of 2022. Although it was such a blessing to finally be licensed it was so hard trying to get students. The reality is most children between the ages of 2-5 were born and/or raised during the pandemic, and a lot has changed. Rather it’s social interactions and even financial hardships families have had to make huge adjustments these last couple of years. My frame of mind and prayer has always been that God would send me the right families. I started with just 1 student. Then a month later I got another student. And it continued to grow from there. Slowly but surely. I have been the maintenance woman, cleaning lady, gardener, administrator, and teacher in order to get my school up and running. Even today, I still take on many of those responsibilities. I am thankful for my supportive parents, siblings, and friends for lending a helping hand whenever they could and for always supporting me. It has not been an easy process and even extremely overwhelming at times, but with God and a great circle of people in my life, I was able to accomplish a lot. It was a long road for me and every day is still a process but it is always important to focus on the progress.
We’ve been impressed with Discovery Christian Preschool LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Discovery Christian Preschool serves preschool children ages 2 to 5 years old in Covina, California. Our preschool strives to assist children in their academic, emotional, social and spiritual development. Our center ensures this by providing services that allow children to play, explore, and learn in a non-constricting, student and teacher, directed setting. We believe that children should be able to make their own choices when presented with different options while being guided and assisted by both their teachers and peers. We strive to educate our children using the five main learning domains (cognitive, language, social/emotional, physical, and self-sufficiency) as well as spiritual-based learning. Our curriculum approach is teacher lead and student-driven, allowing flexibility surrounding our monthly themes in order to cater to our student’s interests.
Our monthly curriculum is a collaboration of problem-solving, counting, alphabets, tracing, experimental, observatory, social, and spiritually-focused activities. We also believe that play is an essential part of the learning and development process and we allow opportunities for our students to engage in free-play (none teacher-directed play) in order to role-play and enhance their own learning environment both cooperatively and independently. At Discovery Christian Preschool, we have different programs for our families to choose from in order to fit your personal needs from full-day to half-day, every day and part-time options. We also provide a daily drop-in option on a first come first serve basis. DCP strives to prepare both children and families for their next step in education and life. Our schedules and curriculum reflect preparative factors in order to assist both children and families for kindergarten and beyond. We also accept subsidy programs, assist with potty learning, and provide two daily snacks.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue growing and developing Discovery Christian Preschool with more students and staff. My goal is to continue to provide a great environment for faith-based education as well as promoting social and emotional growth. I want Discovery Christian Preschool to not only be a home away from home for the students but also a productive and healthy working environment for the staff. I also plan to have more free events for both our school family and the community and surrounding areas in Covina. Discovery Christian Preschool will continue to provide a safe and nurturing learning environment with reasonable pricing and subsidy care. Another thing that I have done and will continue to do is to provide information and resources to other entrepreneurs, and not just in the education field. One of the greatest things you can give someone is useful information from experience and to realize that all of the things learned on your personal journey can also assist someone else on their journey. If I can help someone excel with their business and avoid some of the mistakes that I made on my journey, that is a reward in itself.
Pricing:
- 2022-2023 School Year tuition rates. Tuition is due on a monthly basis. Our tuition rates include 2 daily snacks and potty learning assistance at no additional cost.
- FULL DAY 5 DAYS $880 • HALF DAY 5 DAYS $730 • FULL DAY 3 DAYS $600 • HALF DAY 3 DAYS $430 • FULL DAY 2 DAYS $400 • HALF DAY 2 DAYS $300
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.discoverychristianpreschool.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discoverychristianpreschool/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverychristianpreschool/
Image Credits
“Thank you Ms. Yolanda” painting created by Poppy S. “Ms. Yolanda” Drawing and bio created by Hayden F.
