Scholarships funded for childcare at Southeast Technical College

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Child care is not only expensive it is hard to find. More parents are quitting their jobs to stay at home to take care of their kids. But a new scholarship program aims to help.

Students in the Early Childhood program at Southeast Technical College share an interest in caring for kids.

Now some of them may be able to graduate from this program debt-free. The city of Sioux Falls is putting $450,000 into the Build Dakota scholarship program over three years. City Council member Rich Merkouris says the city's investment will be worth it.

"I think the big thing is we are looking at this as an opportunity to increase workforce in the community, and we know there are continued ongoing challenges with childcare but this is a good first step," said Merkouris.

"One of the keys behind the Build Dakota scholarship is this idea of the match from a local employee. well in the child care industry, the employer can't provide the match because there are no funds. So how do you get somebody to leave school without debt? Because no one is going to go to school, get debt, and then go into the child care industry. So the city's funds are able to be the match," Merkouris continued.

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Trinity Soto qualified for a different scholarship in the Early Childhood Specialist program at Southeast. She works part-time at a preschool in Hartford and says the Dakota Build scholarships will allow others to follow in her footsteps.

"Only two people in my family have graduated high school and continued on so it's kind of a huge deal. And it also helps me too obviously in school I can't work a lot so having more support to pay for school pay for the things that I need, helps. 53:12

Loretta Leloux is the Program Director

"It's so vitally important because again our industry doesn't have the highest paying positions honestly so any time a student can come away from a two-year degree debt free is going to be really super impactful," said Leloux. "There is an application process and then I do a face-to-face interview because I think that is important just to connect with the student really to make sure they are interested in the field because some people... they don't necessarily understand what it is going to take."

Soto works at Stepping Stones Pre School in Hartford and has advice for anyone thinking of a career as an Early Childhood Specialist.

"Apply for all the scholarships you can because chances are you will get at least something and anything helps," said Soto.

To apply for the scholarship,.