Smiling proudly in tiny caps and gowns, dozens of preschoolers celebrated their graduation from The Little Hawks preschool in May, marking an important milestone in their early education. North Harford High’s CDA portfolio students worked hard to make the experience unforgivable for both the preschoolers and the parents. From the green and gold decorations to the superlatives, the students worked hard making every detail count. Throughout the 2025-2026 school year, the students worked closely alongside Child growth and development teacher Mrs.Fries to plan,prep, and teach. The preschoolers were taught basic building skills needed for the beginning of their academic careers, like art, science, math, reading, and more. Mrs. Fries stated “Working with preschoolers is a challenging task. As students are constantly growing and learning, they should continue to use these experiences to evolve as educators”. In coming students often suffer from getting used to the layout and cycle that comes with joining the CDA program. Mrs. Fries states “Incoming students primarily struggle with the workload and the transition into a leadership load”. During graduation, juniors and seniors worked hard to finish their final capstone project. The two years they spent working with the preschoolers came down to this moment in which they would finish their journey with the children and lead the way for incoming students. Having experience with children before becoming a teacher helps you understand their behavior, learning styles, and how to communicate with them effectively. It also builds important skills like patience, confidence, and classroom management. Overall, it prepares you for the challenges of teaching and helps you decide if the career is right or not. Mrs. Fries says “Participating in this program allows high school students to determine if this is a career path they wish to pursue before investing in college courses. It provides a comprehensive look at teaching, including lesson planning, preparation, adhering to guidelines, active instruction, and behavior management.” Whether its wanting to go into the teaching field or working with children in other fields, having the opportunity to work on creating bonds with children allows for that extra time to grow and learn how and why children act the way they do, and helps students have time to see what it would feel like to work with children in a preschool setting. Junior Liz Gizinski states “ I think my group did very well, as well as the entire class did as well, and we got what we needed to get done efficiently.” she continues “ we got our goals achieved, my group was mainly in charge of the superlatives and flowers.” Although graduation went really well, some students thought there might be room for improvement. Junior Kate states “ I feel like everything went very well, the only thing I would add on would be to have a practice run with the kids, so they weren’t breaking down and crying beforehand.” Gizinski states “ probably practicing the graduation walk through with the preschoolers, because there was a lot of improvising as they were walking on stage to get their flowers some didn’t know they were supposed to walk on the bridge.” Junior Danielle Martinez states “I think everything went perfect, although some things could have been done a lot better like maybe decorating, overall it was perfect. I will miss girls Emma Casey and Delilah Rittershofer”. Overall, graduation was the final goal, and they accomplished it as stated by Mrs. Fries “ I felt incredibly proud. I am proud of the high school students who have shown immense growth in their confidence and abilities as student teachers over the last three years. They successfully took on the challenge of hosting the graduation through consistent hard work. I am also proud of our preschoolers, who have demonstrated significant development from the beginning of the year to the end.”