The LSUA Children’s Center Celebrates 25 Years Serving Central Louisiana

ALEXANDRIA - The LSUA Children's Center is proud to mark its 25th anniversary, celebrating a quarter century of providing exceptional childcare and early learning opportunities for the LSUA community and Central Louisiana. Established in 1999, the center has grown into an integral part of LSUA, serving the children of faculty, staff, and students with a commitment to fostering the development of young minds through a research-based, developmentally appropriate curriculum.

Founded through the dedicated efforts of the LSUA community and local civic leaders, the Children's Center was initially built with over $400,000 in private donations and supported by the LSUA Student Government Association (SGA). With forethought for the future and a generous spirit, the SGA helped get a referendum passed that charged a small fee to every LSUA student for direct support of the Children's Center.

In an article by Rose French in the Alexandria Daily TownTalk on the day of the groundbreaking, then LSUA Chancellor Robert Cavanaugh said, "[Our students] have enough concern for the community and future generations to come. Many students have no children, many of them may be gone before it is built. But they have done something that will help the school go on."

With three state-of-the-art classrooms and a fully licensed child-care facility, the center opened its doors with the vision of providing a nurturing, engaging environment where children could learn and grow. Today, the center continues to serve children ages 1-5, offering a curriculum centered on children's wellness, social-emotional development, and school readiness using the Frog Street curriculum and Conscious Discipline.

Missy LaBorde, current communications professor and former Director of the LSUA Foundation at the time of the Center's construction, said, "The LSUA Children's Center began as a project of the LSUA Foundation and was designed to meet a critical need for our campus and the surrounding area. The average age of our students at that time was a bit older than today, and we had many students who could not complete their degrees because they lacked access to childcare. At that time, campus childcare facilities were not typical." Speaking of the benefits of having childcare available to LSUA faculty and staff, LaBorde noted, "All three of my children attended the center, and I could not be happier with the outstanding foundational education they received. Leading the Children's Center Project with the LSUA Foundation will always be a highlight of my career."

Over the past 25 years, the LSUA Children's Center has remained a model for early childhood education in the region, providing hands-on, interactive learning experiences in a supportive, caring environment. The center's mission of nurturing young learners while supporting LSUA's faculty, staff, and students has become an enduring part of the university's legacy. As the center looks to the future, plans for continued growth and program enhancement are in place, ensuring that it remains a cornerstone of early childhood education in Central Louisiana for years to come.

"Dreams do come true," Cavanaugh told a crowd of well-wishers and benefactors who had gathered for the ground breaking ceremony in October of 1999, "If you've got the right people working on them." This prescient sentiment echoes a common refrain from current LSUA Chancellor Paul Coreil. With record enrollment, setting the bar as the fastest growing institution in the state, and celebrating student academic success, Cavanaugh's words continue to ring true.