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Apr 21 2025
As a little girl in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, Karen Carradine attended Head Start, the free childhood development and family service program for children from birth to age five in low-income families.
“What I remember is that it was a place where I felt welcome,” she said. Carradine remembers that the adults talked with her in a very engaging, eye-to-eye way. She appreciated that everything was her size. She loved the sandbox.
“I remember that it just felt really good to be validated through being listened to by an adult,” Carradine said.
The impressions were powerful and enduring. Carradine went on to earn a degree in early childhood education, starting her career as a Head Start teacher after graduation. Later she earned a doctorate in education curriculum and instruction.
Today, she is Geminus’ Vice President of Early Childhood Services. May being Teacher Appreciation Week—Carradine took the opportunity to reflect on the teaching staff that she calls superheroes and the unique, compelling resource that is Geminus Head Start.
“We fill their cups so that when they get into the classroom, they’re the best out there,” she said of the teaching staff. “They act as the mentor and the guide to knowledge that is really close at hand.”
That stature emerges from Geminus’ singular approach.
Classes are small. Curriculum is research-based, and programs are tailored to the specific community. Engagement with the community is a priority.
In addition, all Geminus Head Start teachers have earned at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAECY), a measurement of early learning program excellence that only about 12 percent of early childhood programs have achieved.
Another Geminus Head Start distinction was created in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Geminus established Parent University, initially to get resources to families that were isolated.
It has evolved into experts giving pre-recorded presentations on several important topics related to raising children, including financial management, nutrition, and domestic violence.
“When our teaching staff shows up for class, they understand their own site,” Carradine said. “They show up with that teacher hat and that guidance hat and that patience, but also with that energy of being interested in what they’re teaching. It all falls on the teacher at the end of the day.”
From mom to deputy director
Since its launch in 1997, Geminus Head Start has served about 2,000 children and families each year with convenient access to high-quality early learning and social services in Lake and Porter Counties. It is part of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services program begun in 1965 that has served more than 40 million children and their families in urban, suburban and rural communities.
In partnership with three school districts and 14 childcare centers, Geminus Head Start offers those services in 29 locations. It is Indiana’s largest Head Start program.
As extensive as it is, Head Start serves about 30 percent of eligible families in the region. One of the program’s biggest challenges is the misunderstanding that Head Start is nothing more than daycare.
Beyond making kids ready for school, Head Start offers pre-natal education, and health, nutrition, physical development and special education services. Families can receive resources in several areas, including self-sufficiency, goal setting, crisis intervention and emergency support. Physicals, dental check-ups, up-to-date immunizations and mental health services also are available.
Head Start provides many of those services to clients’ homes, too.
A few years ago, Brandy Jania was a program manager at Geminus and one of those parents who lacked a full understanding of Head Start’s offerings. She was able to enroll her daughter, who has special needs, in Head Start.
“Head Start was honestly a lifesaver for my daughter,” Jania said. Before Head Start, the girl was enrolled in a program that was unable to deliver individual support, attention and patience, Jania said.
“She still refers back to one of her Head Start teachers as her absolute favorite,” Jania said of her daughter, now a second grader. “It’s that individual connection that our teaching staff has with the kids and the parents. They really get to know where the children and parents are and what individualized support is needed. It really fueled my passion to help.”
Jania changed jobs in Geminus to work in Head Start. Now, she’s Deputy Director of the program.
She and others credit Carradine, the one-time Head Start student, for creating Geminus Head Start’s unique environment.
“She is an innovator in a lot of ways,” Geminus Head Start Quality Assurance Director Thomas Walker said. “More than anything, she’s raised the quality of our work. We’re not just large. We’re high quality.”
Ultimately, though, the crucial role in Head Start is the teacher, Walker and others said.
“That bond, that connection and trust established between a child and a teacher caregiver, is vital to setting the children up for success in education and beyond,” he said. “Our teachers understand that and are extremely passionate about the work they do. They’re champions for every child and family that we serve.”