Ana Filpo

Meet Ana Filpo – A site supervisor at The Children’s Center located in Suffolk, Virginia. At the age of 18, Ana volunteered as a translator at an elementary school and she quickly became interested in teaching. Her new found passion led her to change career paths from nursing to early childhood.
After 11 years of working with children, Ana is pursuing her associate degree in early childhood at Tidewater Community College. She has found the coursework to be helpful, especially her Administration for Early Childhood Education class. In addition to giving her a different perspective, she says, this class has “helped me with budgeting and understanding how much it costs to serve a child.” As she continues her education, her employers have been supportive because they see the value of increasing her skills as an early educator.

Ana has had firsthand experience with the financial hardship of going back to school. After finding out about the Project Pathfinders Scholarships, she is grateful that the scholarship helps pay for the books she needs for her coursework. She has since been an advocate for the Pathfinders program and continues to inform other early educators about the scholarships.

Why is Ana committed to early education? She says, “I am successful as a teacher when I can instill kindness and knowledge in the children.” Eventually, she would like to pursue a 4 year degree in Pre-k to 3rd grade.